Phelps lands second and third golds

Michael Phelps took his haul of gold medals at the Athens Olympics to three yesterday after winning the 200 metres butterfly and helping the United States beat Australia in the 4x200 freestyle relay.

But for once the American had to share the spotlight with someone else after Ukrainian Yana Klochkova who became the first woman to win the same two events at consecutive Olympics.

Klochkova won her fourth individual Olympic title, one of just five women swimmers to achieve the feat, when she took out the women's 200 individual medley three days after winning the 400.

The 22-year-old, one of the most versatile women swimmers in history, also won the double in Sydney four years ago, emulating Hungarian Tamas Daryni who won the same two events in 1988 and Russian Alexander Popov who won the freestyle sprint double in Barcelona and Atlanta.

Camelia Potec provided Romania with their first swimming gold in Athens when she won the women's 200 freestyle but the main focus was again on Phelps.

The American posted the second fastest time in history to win the 200 butterfly in one minute 54.04 seconds, just 0.11 outside the world record he set at last year's world championships.

Then he returned to the pool an hour later to join Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay and Klete Keller in the relay, swimming the lead-off leg.

The US had a big lead heading into the final changeover but Ian Thorpe, winner of the 200 individual gold the previous night, began to quickly close on Keller.

Thorpe looked as though he would pass Keller in the final metres but the American held on to reach the wall just 0.13 seconds ahead with Italy third.

"I think this relay will go down in history as one of the greatest," said 19-year-old Phelps.

Thorpe, who was aiming for his third gold of the Games, said: "We've owned this event since 1998 so this is a disappointing result."

Second-slowest qualifier

Klochkova led all the way to win the 200 medley in 2:11.14. American Amanda Beard pushed Klochkova hard in the final length to take silver in 2:11.70 while Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe won the bronze in 2:12.72 to add to the silver she won behind Natalie Coughlin in the 100 backstroke on Monday.

Potec added the Olympic gold to the European title she won in Madrid in May, flashing home from the outside lane to win in 1:58.03, having entered the final as second-slowest qualifier.

Italian teenager Federica Pellegrini was second and Solenne Figues of France third.