Preview: Phelps sits out final relay

ATHENS, Aug 20 (Reuters) -- Michael Phelps will not now feature in the final race of the Olympic swimming competition on Saturday but he could still get a record eighth medal at the Athens Games.

American Phelps, who won his fifth gold medal in the 100 metre butterfly on Friday, pulled out of the U.S. medley relay squad for Saturday's final to give team mate Ian Crocker the chance to swim

But if the U.S. team win as expected, he would still pick up a sixth gold medal because he swam in the heats on Friday.

With five golds and two bronzes, another medal of any sort would match Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's 1980 record for the most medals at one Games.

Inge de Bruijn has lost two of her three Olympic titles but she goes into Saturday's final of the 50 metres freestyle strong favourite to retain her last crown in the concluding session in the pool.

The Dutch flyer, 31 next Tuesday, asserted her domination in both heats and semi-finals on Friday, finishing the best part of half a second faster than anyone else.

De Bruijn had to settle for bronze in Sunday's 100 metres butterfly and silver in Thursday's 100 freestyle but nobody in the 50 freestyle looks capable of dethroning the Dutchwoman, world champion of 2001 and 2003, whose world record 24.13 seconds set at the 2000 Sydney Olympics still stands.

She raced home in 24.66 in the heats, with no one else under 25 seconds, and underlined the message in the evening's semi-finals when she clocked 24.56.

Australia's Libby Lenton returned the second-fastest overall time of 24.90, with Malia Metella of France third in the same semi-final in 24.99.

At the other end of the distance scale, Britain's David Davies led qualifiers for Saturday's 1500 metres final in a British record 14 minutes 57.03 seconds, very quick for heats.

Australia's Grant Hackett, triple world 1500 metres champion and winner of every major 1500 since 1998, did not exert himself unduly and contented himself with third place overall in 15:01.89, rousing himself at the end to take second place in his heat behind Russia's Yuri Prilukov (15:01.02).

The pace will be a lot fiercer on Saturday. Hackett's world record stands at 14:34.56.

Australia suffered a big blow when they miscalculated their heat in the men's 4x100 medley relay and failed to qualify for the final.

A reserve squad minus Ian Thorpe clocked 3:39.14 -- ninth overall and 0.29 seconds adrift of slowest qualifiers Ukraine.

The Australian women did not make the same mistake and set the fastest final qualifying time in their medley relay. The U.S. won their heat and were second-quickest overall.

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