MICHAEL PHELPS, WHO worked late to bag his 19th Olympic gold medal, was back at it today, securing his semi-final berth in the 200m butterfly in Rio de Janeiro.
The 31-year-old superstar admitted he wasn’t at his perkiest after helping the United States to a scintillating 4x100m freestyle relay win shortly before midnight on Sunday.
“I probably got to sleep at 3am and was on an 11am bus, so quick turnarounds,” Phelps said. “But the good thing is we have a long time between the prelims and finals, so we are able to rest. Hopefully I’ll get home and get a quick nap in and be ready for tonight.”
Phelps, who set the 200m fly world record in 2009 but surrendered the Olympic crown to Chad le Clos in 2012, clocked 1min 55.73 — fifth-fastest time of the heats which were led by Tamas Kenderesi in 1:54.73. Kenderesi’s fellow Hungarian Laszlo Cseh was second-fastest in 1:55.14, with le Clos third-quickest in 1:55.57.
Katie Ledecky and Sarah Sjostrom also had a quick turnaround as they tackled the 200m freestyle heats after world record-setting wins on Sunday night.
“It was pretty hard coming off of last night,” said Ledecky, who was accepting her 400m freestyle gold as the clock struck midnight.
“Just got a couple hours of sleep, but I think that was probably going to be my hardest swim of the week so I’m glad it’s over with.”
As usual, Ledecky didn’t make it look hard, winning her heat in 1:55.01 to lead the way into the semi-finals ahead of Australia’s Emma McKeon (1:55.80) and Sjostrom — who became the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic swimming gold when she lowered her own world record in the 100m butterfly on Sunday.
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