Michael Phelps posted the second-best time in the heats of the 200-meter butterfly (1 minute, 54.33 seconds) Tuesday morning, and then immediately turned his attention to the evening’s 200 freestyle final — his first individual final at the swimming world championships.
Phelps will face new world-record holder Paul Biedermann in the first event on the evening program at the Foro Italico.
Biedermann broke Ian Thorpe’s world record in the 400 free Sunday, then took down Phelps’s championship record in the semifinal round of the 200 free Monday.
“Hopefully, I will get some rest” before the race, Phelps said after his swim. “He’s swimming really well. He’s probably the swimmer having the best meet so far … [but] I never back down from a challenge. I love the challenge.”
Despite a lighter schedule at these championships than at last year’s Olympics, Phelps is still facing his fifth swim in three days. He said he was starting to feel the effects of the workload.
“It’s different than what I’ve been used to the last few months,” Phelps said. “Once I get through tonight, I think tonight’s my biggest night.”
Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski posted the fastest time of the morning, 1:54.33, and American Tyler Clary qualified third in the 200 fly, coming home in 1:54.42—despite yet another suit malfunction for the U.S. team. Clary said he split his Jaked suit down the back moments after putting it on. Since it takes a while to squeeze into the super-tight suits, Clary said he sweated through the minutes as climbed into his backup suit.
“At first I was thinking, holy crap, I just spent 25 minutes putting this on,” Clary said. “After that it was all right.”
Ricky Berens ripped his Jaked suit Sunday and Matt Grevers’s Tyr suit tore Monday.
In other news, American Dana Vollmer fell just 0.46 of a second short of the championship record in the 200 free, posting the fastest qualifying time of 1:55.98, ahead of U.S. teammate Allison Schmitt (1:56.75). The world-record holder in the event, Frederica Pellegrini, posted the sixth-fastest time (1:57.22).
South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh posted the fastest time in the 50 breaststroke, 26.92 seconds, topping Brazil’s Felipe Silva (27.12), and Australia’s Brenton Rickard (27.15). American Mark Gangloff advanced to the semifinal round with his ninth-place time (27.27) but George Klein, who posted the 50th-best mark (28.24) did not advance.
Peter Vanderkaay won the eighth and final qualifying spot in the 800 freestyle with his time of 7:49.71; American Jackson Wilcox finished in 7:57.09 and did not qualify for the final.
Tags: Allison Schmitt, Matt Grevers, Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay, Ricky Berens
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