BEIJING – The University of Calgary's Mike Brown produced another national record performance to qualify second for the men's 200-metre breaststroke final, while the men's 4x200 freestyle relay squad finished fifth at the Olympic Games in Beijing Wednesday morning.

In the men's 200-metre breaststroke semifinals, Brown lowered his Canadian record to 2:08.84 to win his semifinal heat and rank second overall. Brown's previous best was 2:09.84 set in Tuesday's prelims. Kosuke Kitajima of Japan won the other semi in an Olympic record 2:08.61. The final is on Thursday morning (Wednesday evening in Canada)

"I felt great in the water and powerful coming home," said Brown. "It sets me up well for the final. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a 2:08 this morning. But I'm pretty pleased with myself, it sets me up well for the final. I'm going in second now, but it's the morning swim that counts at the Olympics. It is going to be a battle. Any of those eight guys could be on the podium."

Brown, who trains at the University of Calgary Swim Club, will join the Dinos varsity team in 2008-09 as they defend their CIS championship.

In the 4X200 relay, the U.S., dominated the race bettering its world record by four seconds to 6:58.56 . It was a fifth gold medal for Michael Phelps. Russia took silver in 7:03.70, and Australia won the bronze in 7:04.98. Canada with Colin Russell of Oakville, Ont., Brian Johns of Vancouver, Brent Hayden of Vancouver and Andrew Hurd of Toronto smashed the national record again clocking 7:05.27.

"Our team did really great," Hayden told CBC television. "We've won medals at the last two worlds and we were just off the podium here."

In the women's 200 individual medley, Stephanie Rice of Australia completed a late charge with a world record performance and gold medal clocking 2:08.45. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was second in 2:08.59 and Natalie Coughlin of the U.S., third in 2:10.34.

Julia Wilkinson of North York, Ont., finished seventh in 2:12.43. Wilkinson was ranked 25th in the world in the event entering the Olympics. She said afterwards she did better than expected and is closing the gap on the leaders.

In the men's 100 freestyle semis, Hayden ranked 11th clocking 48.20 seconds and was eliminated. World records were lowered in both heats. In the first semi, Alain Bernard of France lowered the world standard to 47.20. In the second semi, Eamon Sullivan of Australia reclaimed the record clocking 47.05.

"I wasn't too happy with my 100," said Hayden. "The only thing I can say about that is I just didn't go fast enough."

In the women's 200 butterfly semis, Audrey Lacroix of Montreal ranked 13th and was eliminated.

Competition resumes Wednesday evening with a preliminaries session starting at 6:30 a.m. (EDT).

Full results at: http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/SW.shtml

-30-