Natalie Coughlin and Hayley McGregory blitzed to back-to-back world records and Katie Hoff secured her second Olympic berth at the US swimming trials on Monday. Just two days into the eight-day competition, four world records have fallen as American swimmers engage in a cut-throat battle for places in the Beijing Olympic team. With only the top two finishers in each event qualifying, the competition has been fierce. Even though McGregory and Coughlin posted world records in the 100m backstroke preliminaries, that was only good enough to take them as far as Tuesday's final. Hoff, however, coming off a world record in the 400m medley on Sunday, qualified for her second Olympic event by touching first in the 400m freestyle with the third best time this year of four minutes, 2.32 seconds. Day two got off to an electric start when McGregory powered home in a time of 59.15 during the morning heats to steal Coughlin's world record. But McGregory's reign lasted only as long as it took Coughlin to complete her heat, the 25-year-old storming to the wall in 59.03 to retake her record. Neither swimmer was able to better that time in the evening semifinals but both easily won their heats to set up a mouth-watering showdown in the final. Michael Phelps was left to celebrate his 23rd birthday quietly by qualifying for the 200 meters freestyle final. Ryan Lochte set up another showdown with the six-time Olympic gold medallist in Tuesday's 200m final after clocking the year's best time of 1:45.61 to win his semifinal. World record holder Brendan Hansen set the stage for an Olympic showdown with arch-rival Kosuke Kitajima of Japan by touching first in the 100m breaststroke in 59.93. In the 100m butterfly final, Christine Magnuson came home first in 58.11 ahead of Elaine Breeden and both women qualified for their first Olympics.
