Day 4 Morning Recap

Men's 100 free

This event maybe more than other just has too many good swimmers in it. Ricky Berens, fresh off his third place finish in the 200 last night and toting a 48.0 relay split from last summer, finished in 17th. Adam Ritter, 19th, will also be watching the semi-finals tonight. The crowd was mostly composed through the first heats as swimmers struggled to go under 50. Then Jason Lezak cruised to a 48.15 to break his own American record. Before he could recover his breath, Garret Weber-Gale had further lowered the record to 47.78. Both felt as if they had something left for the upcoming heats. Michael Phelps dropped a 47.92 and look for him to drop out feeling secure over his place on this relay in Beijing. Will 47.92 be safe though? If Weber-Gale and Lezak surpass that, and Matt Grevers leading a host of other big names looming, dropping out of this race could prove controversial for Phelps.

Women's 200 Butterfly

The pressure if off for Elaine Breeden, and she made a statement this morning in the 200 fly while the meet favorites held off. Breeden stormed to a 2:07.72, a drop of two seconds while nearly every other top seed added time. Like the 200 backstroke and 200 free for the women in 2004, thus far the butterfly races have been disappointingly slow in a meet where most event winners are gold medal favorites. Still, there are two more rounds and fans of USA swimming should be crossing their fingers that someone emerges to challenge Misty Hyman's American record

Men's 200 Breaststroke

Another somewhat uneventful morning that revealed very little about what was to come. While Brendan Hansen didn't dominate in the morning, the sense here is that he has learned to pace himself a bit better and is doing just enough to move on. Scott Usher, Scott Spann and Eric Shanteau swam with a little more purpose, each facing the prospect of swimming for second against arguably the world's best breaststroker. Look for each of the four to wait until tomorrow's final to exert themselves fully.

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