ATHENS, Aug. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Quadruple world champion Michael Phelps broke the men's 400m individual medley world record here Sunday on the opening day of the swimming competition at the Athens Olympic Games.

    Phelps shattered his own world mark set in the American OlympicTrials in July in four minutes 8.26 seconds, shaving 0.15 seconds off the previous mark.

    "We wanted to win gold medals in the races we come in and we wanted to get the team off to a good start," said the 19-yera-old Phelps, who also holds the world records in the 200m IM and 200m butterfly.

    When asked about how relieved for his claim for being the greatest of all time by beating Mark Spitz' record of seven gold medals at a single Olympic Games, Phelps said he still had much todo.

    "Now I have one goal down but have six to go," he said.

    Phelps, rated the world's best all-round swimmer, qualified forsix events but he chose to give up the 200m backstroke consideringthe competing schedule. Enditem