Hansen breaks breaststroke record

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Brendan Hansen set another world record at the U.S. swim trials on Sunday, stealing some attention away from Michael Phelps.

Hansen won the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 9.04 seconds, beating the record of 2:09.42 set by Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima at last year’s world championships.

On Thursday, Hansen broke Kitajima’s record in the 100 breaststroke.

Ed Moses, who was America’s dominant breaststroker at the Sydney Games, failed in his bid to return to the Olympics. Bothered by breathing problems, he struggled to a fourth-place showing, more than three seconds behind runner-up Scott Usher, who claimed the expected second spot on the team at 2:10.90.

“When I got in this pool for the first time, I definitely thought something special might happen here,” Hansen said.

It did. The 22-year-old native of Havertown, Pa., became the first American since John Hencken in 1974 to hold the world record at both distances.

Phelps had his busiest day yet with four races scheduled. In the morning, he cruised to the fastest time in the 200 individual medley preliminaries. In the evening, he was second-fastest behind Aaron Peirsol in the 200 backstroke semifinals.

Peirsol, silver medalist at the Sydney Games, challenged his own world record with a time of 1:55.33 — just 0.18 off his 2-year-old mark. Phelps, conserving energy for the 200 IM semis, won his heat at 1:57.30.

Phelps, the world record holder in the 200 IM, had a time of 2:00.71 in the morning. Ryan Lochte was second in 2:02.81.

Phelps has already qualified for the Olympic team in the 400 IM, 200 free and 200 fly and earned a spot on the 800 free relay. He wants to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at the Athens Games.