Beijing, China -- For once, Michael Phelps wasn't the focus.

The 23-year-old American swimmer, fresh off setting the Olympic gold medal record with Nos. 10 and 11, didn't compete in a morning final Thursday for the first time since the swimming program began at the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps did swim, qualifying second-fastest behind teammate Ryan Lochte in the 200-meter individual medley semifinals, but it was more a nuisance than anything else.

"Medals mean more than times," said Phelps, now with five golds at these Olympics, "so that's what I'm going to be focusing on over the next three days."

While Phelps' pursuit of Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Olympics waited for a day, there was plenty to keep a packed National Aquatics Center interested.

China and Australia had winning mornings, as did France's Alain Bernard and Japan's Kosuke Kitajima.

The world record didn't fall again, but Bernard won a hotly-contested men's 100-meter freestyle final by beating Eamon Sullivan of Australia to claim the gold medal he had expected to win.

After losing his world record to Sullivan twice this week, Bernard swam the two laps at 47.21 seconds to beat his new Australian nemesis by just .11 seconds. Sullivan took the silver medal and American Jason Lezak took the bronze.

"I didn't panic during the race," said Bernard, who was beaten on the anchor leg of Monday's 400-meter freestyle relay by. "When I looked at the board I thought, 'Wow, I just did it.'"

Kitajima won the men's 200-meter breaststroke for his second gold medal of these Olympics.

Also a winner in the 100 breaststroke on Monday, Kitajima lowered his own Olympic record by nearly a second to 2 minutes, 7.64 seconds. He won both breaststroke events at the 2004 Athens Olympics as well.

"I am so relieved," said Kitajima, also the world record holder. "I was going to improve my time a bit more, but I guess that to win this race is more important than to set a good time."

Brenton Rickard took the silver medal 1.24 seconds behind Kitajima, finishing at 2:08.88 for an Oceanian record. Hugues Duboscq claimed bronze just .06 seconds slower than Rickard.

Duboscq summed up what it's like facing Kitajima: "I can't swim faster than Kosuke, but it could have been possible to get a better result."

The only U.S. swimmer to make the final, Scott Spann finished in sixth place, .82 seconds out of medal contention. Spann and Eric Shanteau qualified for the event at U.S. trials ahead of former world record holder and 2004 bronze medalist Brendan Hansen.

The cancer-stricken Shanteau, never expected to medal, didn't make it out of the semifinals Wednesday night.

In the women's 200-meter butterfly, China's Liu Zige set new world record and finished ahead of teammate Jiao Liuyang in a 1-2 Chinese sweep of the gold and silver medals.

Liu lowered the world record by a whopping 1.22 seconds, touching in 2 minutes, 4.18 seconds to batter the nearly two-year-old mark held by Jessicah Schipper of Australia.

Jiao was more than a half-second slower than her teammate, winning the silver at 2:04.72, while Schipper settled for a distant bronze medal at 2:06.26 -- 2.08 seconds behind Liu.

The Chinese women had the packed arena on its feet. Home fans frantically waved the Chinese flag, and the anticipation for this country's first medal ceremony here was palpable.

"I didn't feel pressure," said Liu. "And in the race I just swam at my own pace, not caring about others."

Said Jiao: "We swam together and I felt like we were training."

Meanwhile, Australia smashed the world record to win gold in the women's 800-meter freestyle relay. The American women finished in third behind China.

Earlier, Coughlin, now a triple-medalist at the games, qualified with the fastest time in the women's 100-meter freestyle semifinals, while U.S. teammate Lacey Nymeyer finished four spots out of a berth in the final.

Aaron Peirsol and Lochte qualified with the two fastest times for the men's 200-meter backstroke final, and U.S. teammate Rebecca Soni was fastest in women's 200-meter breaststroke semifinals.