Phelps forced to share limelight

Legendary swimmer ties with Shields in 100m butterfly.

LOS ANGELES:

Olympic superstar Michael Phelps had to share honours on Friday, finishing in a tie for first with Tom Shields in the 100m butterfly at the Santa Clara grand prix meeting.

Phelps, who came out of a near two-year retirement in April in a comeback that could take him all the way to the 2016 Rio Games, was second to Shields at the turn.

The 18-time Olympic gold medallist closed the narrow gap, and they were matched stroke-for-stroke in the final 25 meters before hitting the wall in the same time of 52.11sec.

Phelps’s evening also included a runner-up finish to Olympic champion Nathan Adrian in the 100m freestyle.

Adrian clocked a blistering 48.17sec. In an event that has never been one of his signature races, Phelps was second in 48.80 with Connor Dwyer third in 49.76.

“I’m happier about the 100 free than I am the 100 fly,” said Phelps in a post-race interview.

Phelps said that he and coach Bob Bowman had hoped he would show more improvement in his 100m fly time over the 52.13 he posted at both the Mesa, Arizona, Grand Prix in April and in Charlotte last month.

In Mesa, his first meet since the London Olympics, Phelps finished runner-up to Ryan Lochte in the 100m fly, while in Charlotte the same time gave him a victory.

“Bob and I are both kind of annoyed about going 52.1 — it’s the third time we’ve done it this year,” Phelps said. “We’d like to make a bigger breakthrough.”

Although he wasn’t close to Adrian in the 100m free, Phelps found the sub-49-second time more satisfying.

Now the 100m free is another event in which he’s qualified to compete at the US championships in August, the selection meeting for the Pan Pacific championships and next year’s World Championships in Russia.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2014.

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