Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Jared Anderson.
Michael Phelps kept up with the theme of his weekend in the 200 IM, which was taking the race out fast. Phelps, swimming just outside the top-seeded middle lane, pushed out to a huge lead at the 100-mark. Though Josh Prenot surged into the hunt over the breaststroke leg, Phelps was able to hold him off on freestyle and break two minutes, going 1:59.39.
Prenot wound up second in 2:00.43, and those two were pretty well checkout out from the bunch. Chase Kalisz took the last money-earning spot, going 2:02.33 to touch out Stanford’s Max Williamson (2:02.55) and Kalisz’s University of Georgia teammate Gunnar Bentz (2:02.60).
18-year-old Alex Lebed was 2:03.59, winning his own touchout over Mohamed Hussein (2:03.67). Closing out the heat were a pair of South African nationals, Arizona’s Michael Meyer (2:04.38) and Club Wolverine’s Dylan Bosch (2:04.52).
Wisconsin Aquatics pro Michael Weiss won the B final, going 2:04.41.
More and more evidence that the shift in MP’s approach and attitude is sincere and sustainable. Choosing to set your legs on fire in the 2 back at the end of what would have already been considered his best sessions since the comeback is a really promising sign.
And per his comment, I guess there’s nothing like a morning LCM 200 to shake the cobwebs out of your backstroke for the IM:
prelims:
2 Phelps, Michael 29 North Baltimore- 1:56.04 2:00.77
25.84 56.94 *(31.10)*
1:32.31 (35.37) 2:00.77 (28.46)
finals:
1 Phelps, Michael 29 North Baltimore- 2:00.77 1:59.39
25.83 55.46 *(29.63)*
1:31.08 (35.62) 1:59.39 (28.31)
Shows what an uphill battle Lochte’s been fighting all these years.