Phelps breezes into Individual Medley finals

American swimming superstar Michael Phelps clocked the fastest time in the heats for the 100m Individual Medley on Saturday as the 14-times Olympic champion looks to win five events at Berlin's World Cup short-course meet. The 26-year-old, who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, qualified in the 100m IM heats in a time of 52.87secs during his first race of the two-day meet. He will race in both the 100m and 400m IM finals here on Saturday afternoon. Phelps is racing here in the 100m butterfly, 100m, 200m and 400m individual medley and the 200m back-stroke as part of his preparations for next July's London Olympic Games, with the US trials to be held in June. "It's not too much for me," said Phelps, when asked about his programme in Berlin. "I need competition and the more the better. "However, no one is saying I will definitely get to the finals in all five events." Phelps, who also won six golds at the 2004 Olympics, has said he is in his best form since 2008, but he started his season in Moscow earlier this week with a defeat by Germany's Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle. "Nobody likes to lose," said Phelps. "But for me it is not crucial at this stage whether I win races. "More important are the development stages which I go through in preparing for London and the related goals. "I'm on the right track and I feel much better than last year at this time." Other swim stars in action in Berlin included double Olympic champion Britta Steffen whose time of 24.29secs in the 50m freestyle heats was second-fastest behind Britain's Francesca Halsall, who swam 24.26sec. "It was okay, but in the final, I'll have to be faster," said Steffen. Her boyfriend and short-course world champion Biedermann dominated the field in the 400m freestyle heats and was the fastest into the final in a time of 3 mins 44.85secs. "That was perhaps a little too fast, but there is a little more pressure when you race at home and I wanted to show a little more than usual," said the German.