Michael Phelps stormed to victory in the men’s 200m freestyle swimming, claiming his third gold medal and third world record of the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps, 23, finished nearly two seconds ahead of South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan in a time of one minute 42.96 seconds. The American owned the previous record of 1:43.86 and now has a joint-record nine Olympics career golds.

Phelps’s compatriot Peter Vanderkaay took bronze, while Britain’s Robbie Renwick finished eighth.

“I just wanted to be out on my own which I had done by the 100 metres mark, that was my goal,” said Phelps, who led from start to finish. “I was out in open water and I was in the middle, which makes it difficult for the other guys to see me. I knew Park would have a strong last 50 metres, so I had to keep my focus and concentration.”

Phelps has already triumphed in the 400m individual medley and 4×100m freestyle relay and looks to be improving with each race. The 200m freestyle was a medal which eluded him in Athens when he was a bronze medallist behind Australian Ian Thorpe.