BEIJING — Jason Lezak outtouched Alain Bernard of France at the wall today to give the United States a win in the 400-meter freestyle relay and keep alive Michael Phelps’ bid for eight Olympic gold medals.
Lezak overtook the Frenchman to win in 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds, breaking the world record of 3:12.23 set by the Americans in Sunday’s preliminaries.
France took the silver in 3:08.32. Australia earned the bronze in 3:09.91.
Phelps’ hopes of breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single Games appeared doomed when the French took over the lead at the 250 mark. They were 4.03 seconds under world-record pace at 350 meters before Lezak, the oldest American male swimmer at 32, rallied over the closing strokes.
In the race before the men’s relay, American Katie Hoff was upset in the 400-meter freestyle, losing the Olympic gold medal to Rebecca Adlington of Britain.
Adlington overhauled Hoff down the stretch to win in 4 minutes, 3.22 seconds today. Hoff took the silver in 4:03.29. Adlington’s teammate Joanne Jackson earned the bronze in 4:03.52. Defending champion Laure Manaudou finished last in eighth.
Hoff is 0-for-2 in finals for gold so far, taking a bronze in the 400 individual medley.
Also, two more world marks fell this morning when Kosuke Kitajima of Japan finished off American Brendan Hansen’s hopes of an individual medal, winning the 100 breaststroke in 58.91 seconds. Kitajima pounded the water defiantly and let out a scream after breaking Hansen’s 2-year-old record of 59.13.
Hansen was left without a medal, fading to fourth behind silver medalist Alexander Dale Oen of Norway and Hugues Duboscq of France, who took bronze.
Kirsty Coventry didn’t even bother waiting until a final to set a record in the 100 backstroke. The Zim-babwean won her semifinal heat in 58.77, taking down Natalie Coughlin’s mark of 58.97 set at the U.S. Trials last month.
They’ll go head to head in Tuesday morning’s final. Coughlin won her heat in 59.43 with a nice, comfortable swim.
Five world records had been set through the first three days at the Water Cube.
Libby Trickett of Australia just missed another world record in the women’s 100 butterfly, winning gold with a time of 56.73.
American Christine Magnuson claimed the silver (57.10), and another Aussie, Jess Schipper, took the bronze (57.25).
Phelps, who has already won two gold medals in record time, took care of another little matter in the 200 free, moving on to the final with the fourth-fastest time of the semis. Trying to save energy as the leadoff leg of the relay, the American touched in 1:46.28 to finish behind teammate Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.76) and South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan (1:45.99).
