Phelps storms to 100 free win
Print Edition
OLYMPIC superstar Michael Phelps’s legendary racing instincts kicked in on Saturday as he capped his latest comeback meet with a storming 100-meter freestyle win.
Phelps flew from last to first on the second lap for his second victory of the Mesa Pro Series meeting in Phoenix, Arizona — his first competition in eight months.
Swimming in lane seven after posting the fifth-fastest qualifying time, Phelps clocked 49.72 seconds to edge top qualifier Ryan Lochte by five-hundredths of a second.
Conor Dwyer made it a United States sweep of the top three places with a time of 50.02.
The dramatic win for the 18-time Olympic gold medalist came less than half an hour after he finished third in the 200 individual medley behind Lochte and Dwyer.
Phelps, whose glittering Olympic career was built on multi-event campaigns such as the one that yielded a perfect eight golds in eight events in Beijing in 2008, admitted before the finals he didn’t know how his body would cope with the double.
“Being able to come back and do that 100 free, that was the best day of my meet here,” Phelps said. “I don’t know if having a tight turnaround like that is better for me.”
The 29-year-old last raced in August, and was coming off the six-month suspension imposed after his drunk-driving arrest in September.
“It’s weird. I feel so much better in physical shape, but I almost don’t know how to race,” Phelps mused before Saturday’s finals.
The knack seemed to come back to him on the final lap of the free, and Phelps exited the pool with a big grin to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd.
“I don’t know what it was coming of the 50 wall,” Phelps said. “As I was underwater I just started kicking and it was like, one of the kicks I felt something different.
“Moving past the kid in the lane next to me I was like, ‘I’m starting to move here, this is a pretty good feeling’.”
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