Parry Claims Bronze in Pool

Stephen Parry claimed Great Britain's second medal of the Olympic Games when he took the bronze in the 200m butterfly in a time of one minute 55.52 seconds.

Parry had defeated American sensation Michael Phelps in the semi-final, but he was unable to repeat that effort as Phelps went away from him in the final 50m to take gold in a new Olympic record of 1:54.04, his second gold of the Games, with Japan's Takashi Yamamoto finishing second.

It was the perfect morale booster for a British team already under pressure for a worse than expected showing in the pool, and still haunted by the memory of failing to return from Sydney without a single medal for the first time since 1936.

Parry had been the slowest qualifier for the semi-finals but broke his own British record from lane eight in the semi-finals to qualify fastest for tonight's final.

The 27-year-old knew that was no guarantee of a medal however, with hot favourite Phelps having qualified second quickest despite having contested the thrilling 200m freestyle final against Ian Thorpe just 45 minutes earlier that evening.

But after finishing sixth in the Olympic final four years ago and fourth in the world championships in Barcelona last year, Parry finally forced his way onto the podium with a time of one minute 55.52 seconds.