Brendan cleared for relay....but not so fast.

U.S. DQ in 400 Medley Relay Puts End to Phelps' Chase for Eight

By John Lohn

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 31. MICHAEL Phelps' bid for an eighth gold medal at the World Championships was taken out of his hands this morning when the United States was disqualified in the preliminaries of the 400 medley relay. The U.S. touched first in the heat, clocking 3:34.72, but an early takeoff by Ian Crocker on the butterfly leg led to the DQ.

With Scott Usher coming into the wall from the breaststroke leg, Crocker went for a quality start, one that turned out to be too good, as he left the blocks just before Usher's hand hit the touchpad. The disqualification prevents Phelps from swimming on the medley relay at night and the chance to go 8-for-8. If Phelps win the 400 individual medley tonight, he'll have seven gold medals.

"We thought we were being conservative," said Neil Walker, who was on the freestyle anchor. "It's disappointing because Michael was trying to do something that has never been done. This is the type of thing that happens. There's no other explanation. We thought it looked fine on the replay. It looked like Usher touched and Ian's toes were still on the block. But, that's not what the official reading said."

Damn.