Michael Phelps is back. A 1:46.02 win in the 200m freestyle and a 51.72 victory in the 100m 'fly at the Charlotte UltraSwim round of the USA Swimming Grand Prix circuit let rivals around the world know that the fat of down-time is shed. Superfish, winner of 14 Olympic gold medals, hungers yet.
The meet record from 2006 had stood at 1:48.88. Behind Phelps's 1:46.02 - in what looks like an FS-Pro from 2007 - came Peter Vanderkaay, on 1:46.71, and Davis Tarwater, on 1:47.35. Fourth went to Aaron Peirsol, a backstroke great on 1:49.84, while the man who got past him over 200m these past two seasons, Ryan Lochte, missed the final and settled for the B final win, on 1:50.58.
When Vanderkaay put pressure on, Phelps switched from classic stroke to a straight-arm recovery technique already employed by several big sprinting names down the generations. Indeed, Janet Evans employed a version of it in devastating fashion from 400m to 1,500m some years back.
Phelps showed that his days of fast multi-swims are far from over when he returned to the fray in the 100m butterfly and cracked out a 51.72 that confined to history the 52.90 meet record of 2006, that bygone era when suits were not oft spoken of because there was no need. Tyler McGill took second in 52.76, with New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel third in 53.22.
Phelps said: "I was a little surprised tonight. I was pretty happy with my 200 free, then coming back felt good. We are in okay shape for day one. I gave a little preview of the stroke [windmill free]. I figured I'd use it the last 15 metres."
The 23-year-old added: I'm very pleased. This is an excellent start. The training is going extremely well. I'm definitely ahead of the schedule where I thought I was going to be at. I'm really happy. I was excited to race and I kept that drive and passion."
Coach Bob Bowman agreed: "I would say that is ahead of schedule. I'm a little surprised. I was thinking 47-high (for the 200 free). I'm very pleased. I need to see the whole weekend. But this tells me quite a bit actually."
On the flatter windmilling stroke technique, Phelps said: "That was a little tiny preview. I wanted to see if I could pick up the tempo going into the wall. It wasn't bad. I was able to accelerate into the finish."
Phelps said he was now more relaxed after having put behind him his first post-Beijing races. "I woke up from my nap feeling weird," Phelps said. "I think it was weird that it was my first finals since Beijing. It was like there was more pressure here than Beijing. I didn't see so many cameras in Beijing."
Dagny Knutson took the women's 200m free in 1:58.63, the only sub 2min effort, with Mary DeScenza and Katie Hoff on 2min-point. Knutson, 17, was back later to win the 400m medley in a meet record of 4:41.47. Elizabeth Beisel, 16, took second in 4:42.61, with third going to 14-year-old Willa Wang, on 4:51.50.
Mark Gangloff and Eric Shanteau battled for the touch in the 100m breaststroke, Gangloff challenging the minute mark with a 1:00.18, 0.08sec outside personal best but in a shiny Jaked, for context, Shanteau on 1:00.63. The women's 100m breaststroke went to 15-year-old Canadian promise Amanda Reason, on 1:08.80. Corrie Clark and Abby Macgregor followed on in 1:09.63 and 1:09.64.
Olympic medallist Christine Magnuson set a meet record of 58.35 to win the 100m butterfly by a hand over Mary DeScenza, on 58.54, third going to Felicia Lee, on 59.41. Thiago Pereira, of Brazil, got just inside meet record in the 400m medley, with a 4:16.19 win, with Tyler Clary and Alex Vanderkaay on 4:20.40 and 4:20.62 respectively.
