Four golds as Americans dominate Pan Pacific

Alastair Himmer, Reuters, Yokohama, Japan

Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin were among a quartet of American swimmers who won individual golds as the U.S. team dominated the second day of the Pan Pacific swimming championships here on Sunday.

Amanda Beard and Diana Munz also struck gold in Yokohama to bring the U.S. level with Australia in the gold medal standings at five each after seeing their fierce rivals win four out of five finals on Saturday.

Grant Hackett, clear favorite in the 800 meters freestyle in the absence of world record holder Ian Thorpe, cruised to victory in the last final of the evening to set up an intriguing battle over the remaining four days of the competition.

Phelps missed out on a world record but still won gold in the 400 meters individual medley, clocking four minutes, 12.48 seconds after a tight finish with American teammate Erik Vendt, who touched in 4:13.15. Japanese swimmer Takahiro Mori took the bronze in 4:16.35.

The 17-year-old Phelps was 0.43 seconds inside his own world mark after 200 meters but was caught by Vendt on the breaststroke leg and needed amazing powers of recovery to come back over the final leg of freestyle.

Phelps, who set a world record of 4:11.09 at the U.S. nationals earlier this month, settled for a new championship best and will now turn his sights to breaking his own world mark in the 200 meters butterfly over the next two days.

Coughlin, who became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 meters backstroke at the U.S. nationals in Fort Lauderdale, tied a Pan Pacific record as she won the 100 meters butterfly in 57.88.

Australian Petria Thomas, who won five golds at the Commonwealth Games, had to settle for silver this time in 58.11 and eight times Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Thompson took bronze for the U.S. in 58.64.

Beard won the 100 meters breaststroke in 1:08.22 -- her best time since 1996 -- with US teammate Tara Kirk taking silver in 1:08.66 and China's Luo Xuejuan third in 1:08.70.

Munz, who won gold in the 1,500 meters freestyle on Saturday, then edged out team mate Lindsay Benko to add the 400 meters title in 4:09.50 to give the U.S. a 5-4 lead in the gold medal count -- at least for an hour.

Hackett stopped the rot as he comfortably took gold in the 800 meters freestyle, clocking a championship best of 7:44.78 but well outside the world record of 7:39.16 which Thorpe set at last year's world championships in Fukuoka.

Kosuke Kitajima briefly broke up the supremacy of the U.S. and Australia midway through the evening session as he won the first Japanese gold medal of the championships, taking the 100 meters breaststroke title in a time of 1:00.36.