Phelps: Six races, six golds

Michael Phelps continues his chase of Mark Spitz's record of seven medals in one Olympics by overpowering the field in the men's 200 individual medley.

BEIJING -- Six was quick for Michael Phelps -- another gold medal, another world record.

The American swimmer splashed his way to his sixth gold of these Olympic Games on Friday morning (Thursday night in the United States) in the 200 individual medley, breaking his own world record with a time of 1:54.23.

Phelps took the lead in the first quarter of the race and never came close to losing it.

"I just wanted to step on it in the first 50 a little bit and try and get out to an early lead," Phelps said. "I knew in the first half if I got a big enough lead I thought I could hang on, and that's all I wanted to do."

That victory was the headline of a star-spangled night at the Water Cube, where the Americans won three of four finals.

Phelps' victory also extended his career Olympic haul to 12 gold medals - more than any other Olympic athlete ever. In six events in China, Phelps has set six world records - four in individual events and two in relays.

With a goal of winning eight golds in eight events, Phelps will swim his final two events -- the 100 butterfly and the 4x100 medley relay -- in the next two days. If he wins both, he will surpass in these Olympics the seven gold medals that swimmer Mark Spitz won for the U.S. team at the 1972 Olympics.

The biggest obstacle to hitting the "Great Eight" jackpot for Phelps probably will be the 100 butterfly Saturday morning (tonight in the U.S.). In that event, U.S. teammate Ian Crocker has beaten Phelps three time, but not since 2005. Crocker also holds the world record in the event.

From his pre-race iPod to the way he snaps his arms together three times on the starting blocks just before the race, Phelps' habits have become familiar to an American public that sees him race on TV practically every night. He has made winning a habit, too.

The main competition for Phelps in the 200 individual medley Thursday was U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte. Because of the Olympic swim schedule, Lochte won a gold medal in the 200 backstroke only 28 minutes before the 200 IM, then had to jump right back into the water to face Phelps.

The difficult sequence obviously took a toll on Lochte. He was more than two seconds behind Phelps and struggled to a bronze. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh took silver.

"I laid everything I had out there," Lochte said.

"I knew that was a hard double for Ryan," Phelps said.

In the three other finals:

* America's Rebecca Soni won the gold medal in the 200 breaststroke, setting a world record at 2:20.22 in an upset of Australia's Leisel Jones.

Soni had already won a silver medal behind Jones in the 100 breaststroke.

She used a powerful final 50 meters to pull away from Jones, who won silver. Norway's Sara Nordenstam won bronze.

Soni gave the U.S. women's team a much-needed boost. She wasn't even supposed to swim the 100 breast. She took over when Jessica Hardy failed a doping test at the U.S. trials and was dropped from the team.

"I definitely thought I could (win gold)," said Soni, who underwent an operation two years ago to correct an irregular heartbeat. "It was a good place to be mentally, to think that I had a chance."

* The U.S. went 1-2 in the 200 backstroke, as Lochte edged Aaron Peirsol at the wall and set a world record.

Peirsol was the ruler of that event for seven years, going undefeated from 2001 to 2007, until Lochte beat him in the world championships. Peirsol had then edged Lochte at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials.

Lochte now has four medals from these games: gold in the 200 backstroke and the 4x200 freestyle relay, bronze in the 200 individual medley and bronze in the 400 individual medley.

Lochte's 200 back win was the 20th world record set in swimming during these games, with two days still to go.

* In the women's 100 freestyle, American Natalie Coughlin placed third for her fifth medal of the games.

Germany's Britta Steffen won gold and Australia's Lisbeth Trickett, the world record-holder, took silver.

Steffen touched in 53.12 seconds, bettering her own Olympic record of 53.38 set in the preliminary heats.

Coughlin's fifth medal equaled her haul from four years ago in Athens.