Phelps wins again, takes 200 butterfly

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Michael Phelps won the 200-yard butterfly Sunday, giving the 14-time Olympic champion five first-place finishes in five events at the three-day NBAC Christmas meet at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Phelps, swimming for the host North Baltimore Aquatic Club, finished in 1 minute, 42.29 seconds, nearly 3 seconds ahead of Todd Patrick.

“I’m not where I need to be in terms of my fitness, but then I knew coming in that I have a lot to do to be in the best shape to swim the times I want to swim. But this was a stepping stone to that,” Phelps said. “I swam three-quarters of two real good 200s (in the freestyle and butterfly) and in the 400 IM, I was happy with that.”

During the meet’s first two days, Phelps won the 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 400 individual medley. He had also been scheduled to swim in the 100 freestyle on Sunday and swam it in preliminaries, but skipped the final to concentrate on the 200 fly. The two events were 22 minutes apart.

Phelps said he will compete next with the U.S. team in this weekend’s Duel in the Pool short-course meet in Manchester, England, against an international team of swimmers from England, Germany and Italy. After that, he plans to train for three weeks at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Phelps, who had a subpar performance last month in World Cup meets in Berlin and Stockholm, grew up competing in the youth-based NBAC meet, so he felt it was a good site for a training swim after a period of about six weeks when he took a lull from his normally intense regimen.

“We accomplished everything we came here to do, especially in seeing where he is in his short-course swims in relation to his best times,” said Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman.

Also on Sunday, three-time Olympic swimming champion Libby Trickett announced her retiring from top competition at the age of 24.

The Australian, an eight-time winner in the world championships, said she had been considering her future since the July world championships in Rome.

She won her first Olympic title in the 400-meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Games, and won gold in the 100 butterfly and 400 medley relay at Beijing last year.