IN NAVAL warfare, when we pay too much attention to the mighty aircraft carrier, a nippy frigate can sometimes slip under the radar to notch up a historic victory.

It wasn't a naval battle as such in Beijing. But yesterday, when all eyes remained focused on that great amphibian Michael Phelps and his amazing swim show, a 'blip' at these Games decided to grab the spotlight and shine it upon himself.

Hopefully, some of us noticed.

So, you may ask. What's so 'Phelp-ish' about that?

Well, for one thing, it would have been criminal had we swept it under the red carpet, because yesterday at the Water Cube - where superhuman feats have been the norm - Kosuke Kitajima wrote his name into the Olympic history books with a mind-blowing win in the 200m breaststroke.

You see, until he did what he did at 10 in the morning, no swimmer in the history of the Olympics had won back-to-back gold medals in the demanding 100m and 200m breaststroke.

He did. He, with the crew-cut and standing a head shorter than Australian silver medallist Brenton Rickard, did it in a new Olympic record time of 2:07.64sec.

PHENOMENAL

Come tomorrow, when the Phelps parade resumes at poolside, Kitajima's name may be consigned to the dusty pages of Olympic archives.

Hopefully, by then, he would have made new fans. Because, honestly, what he did yesterday morning was phenomenal.

If all of Japan were giddy with delight at Kitajima's historic swim, the home fans must have gone ga-ga when Liu Zige 'flew' to a new world record in the women's 200m butterfly.

After all, and taking into account China's perch at the top of the medal standings, it was hard to imagine that this was their first win in the pool.

Yes, until Liu - ranked 22nd in the world before the Games - touched gold with a new world-record time of 2:04.18sec, the Chinese national anthem had not been heard at poolside.

For good measure, Liu's training mate, Jiao Liuyang torpedoed home to claim the silver - also under world-record time.

For statisticians, Liu's victory would have floored them. After all, it was just a few months ago that the Chinese swimmer's best time was 2:14.8sec. That was what she clocked at the China Open 2008 - 10 seconds slower than her winning time.

Later, she added to the perplexity by saying: 'I didn't know I could swim so fast.'

Until Phelps comes up and says: 'I didn't know I could win seven,' this will remain the understatement of the Games.

It makes one wonder what the girl had for breakfast yesterday morning?

Whatever it was, I'm sure Jessicah Schipper of Australia would have wanted it delivered to her room by the carton.

The world-record holder for the event was swept away by the Chinese tsunami, finishing a fading third in 2:06.26sec.

HEAD-TURNER

There was yet another head-turner at the pool when Alain Bernard of France redeemed himself for getting caught on the anchor leg in the 400m freestyle relay - the defeat which kept Phelps record-breaking gold medal haul on track.

The Frenchman beat his great Australian rival Eamon Sullivan in the blue riband of the meet - the 100m freestyle, clocking 47.21sec.

Jason Lezak, the man Phelps will be forever in debt should he break Mark Spitz's record, took bronze in 47.67sec - 0.34 of a second slower than Sullivan.

On Monday, and swimming the anchor leg in the 4x100m relay, Lezak had held off Bernard by the narrowest of margins to give the Americans the gold. Had he not surged to the wall, Phelps' Beijing mission would have gone down the drain.

The race was also memorable as it turned out to be Pieter van den Hoogenband's last international race.

The Dutchman, who was out to win this event for the third time, struggled and finished fifth.

'These guys are from a different world,' he told reporters later. 'This is not my generation.'

Goodbye Hoogie, we enjoyed your company in Sydney and Athens. You were good news. But all things must pass.