Phelps leads US 4x100m relay team to World Championship gold medal

Just like Beijing, Phelps and co win men's 4x100m freestyle relay to leave fancied France thwarted

Just like Beijing, Phelps and co win men's 4x100m freestyle relay to leave fancied France thwarted

Michael Phelps opened his World Championships campaign yesterday with a victory that echoed his Beijing Olympic dream and France's Olympic relay nightmare.

Michael Phelps of the United States celebrates his team's victory in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay during the 13th FINA World Championships

Phelps and his US cohorts won the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, again handing favoured France a disappointing defeat.

Phelps's lead-off leg left the Americans in third place, leaving Ryan Lochte to try to hang on to France's individual Olympic gold medallist Alain Bernard as Russia powered their way into contention.

American Matt Grevers pressed in the third leg before Nathan Adrian brought it home, overtaking the Russians who had seized the lead and holding off France's 50m free world record-holder Frederick Bousquet for the victory in 3min 09.21sec.

Phelps celebrated on the pool deck then bent down to congratulate Adrian.

Adrian's anchor leg recalled that of Jason Lezak in Beijing, where the US veteran reeled in Bernard and overtook him in the closing meters for a victory that kept Phelps on course for a record eight gold medals at one Games.
"Coming in to this relay, to be honest, I felt like a child among men," Adrian said.

"All of these guys have made a great name for themselves, they've won individual medals at the Olympics, and they threw me on the last leg, so I had a little bit of pressure on myself."

The Russian quartet of Evgeniy Lagunov, Andrey Grechin, Danila Izotov and Alexander Sukhorukov took the silver in 3:09.42, while Fabien Gilot, Bernard, Gregory Mallet and Bousquet clocked 3:09.89.

"When we come into a meet we have a goal to win all three relays, and I think this is a perfect way to end day one," Phelps said.

"Relays are raced as a team, and I think all four guys swam a great race."

Bob Bowman, Phelps's coach who is also serving as the US men's head coach for the worlds, was delighted to see Phelps's teammates rise to the challenge.

"I think each guy did their job," Bowman said. "Michael got them close enough to be in the race. Ryan got them in clean water a little bit. Matt kind of pulled them up and then Nathan really did the job on the end.