Phelps scrapes into IM final

Michael Phelps squeezed into the final of the 400 metres individual medley by just seven hundredths of a second as the first morning of the Olympic programme got under way in London.Phelps, the defending champion, was eighth fastest into Saturday night final, edging out Beijing silver medallist Laszlo Cseh in a major surprise.Other shocks included the disqualification of 2008 champion Park Tae Hwan in the 400m freestyle, although the result of a protest to the jury of appeal was as yet unknown, while world record holder Paul Biedermann failed to make it through.Phelps and Cseh were alongside each other in the fourth heat but their apparent game of cat and mouse almost proved costly for both men.Phelps touched in four 13.33 seconds, just 0.07secs ahead of the Hungarian who won silver behind him three times in Beijing.However, it was 17-year-old Kosuke Hagino who laid down the gauntlet with a time of 4:10.01 ahead of South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Ryan Lochte, although the world champion was clearly easing off.Phelps admitted to being taken by surprise and said: “I didn’t expect those guys to go that fast.