Olympic Games, London: Day 3 semi-finals

Men's 200m Butterfly

In his next bid for an historic three-peat, defending champion Michael Phelps (USA) gave as much as he needed to. 

His teammate Tyler Clary was fastest off the start in heat one of the semis and turned at the 100 in 54.74. Takeshi Matsuda (JPN) moved up on him to the 150 - and brought it home, holding off a challenging Chad le Clos (USA) to set the bar at 1:54.25. Le Clos posted 1:54.34 for second, and China's Chen Yin touched third in 1:54.43.

In the second semi, Bence Biczo of Hungary set the pace until the 150 - with Phelps biding his time in 3rd place as Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia moved into second at the 150 mark. Phelps turned it on to win the race in 1:54.53 - Dinko Jukic of Austria reached in for second in 1:54.95 - and Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland was third in 1:55.04.

Tomorrow's final sees Matsuda lead the field in lane 4, followed by le Clos and Chen, with Phelps set up in 4th place for a shot at writing another line in a swimming history book bigger and bolder than them all.