INDIANAPOLIS, 8 October 2004 — Michael Phelps made a comfortable return to the pool at the World Short Course Swimming Championships yesterday, touching first in his preliminary heat in the 200 meters freestyle.
Seeing his first competitive action since the Olympics, Phelps produced a controlled swim as he launched his bid for repeat of his six gold medal performance in Athens with a time of one minute, 45.82 seconds. But Phelps, who has been distracted by sponsor commitments, endorsements and promotional appearances since his return from Athens six weeks ago, will have to produce a better effort in the evening final if he hopes to get his campaign off to a winning start. The 19-year-old American’s time was only the second quickest of the day as Canada’s Richard Say topped all qualifiers with 1:45.15.
“I need to get into it a little more tonight,” said Phelps. “I think tonight is the big race and I think I can pop a good one.”
The American’s great rival Ian Thorpe is not competing at these championships but Phelps will have the Australian’s world record of 1:41.10 set in 2000 in Berlin in his sights.
With all his numerous medals and records, there are no short course world marks on his lengthy resume. The opening night of competition will see four other finals with the women’s 200m butterfly, women’s 400m individual medley along with the women’s 4x200 freestyle and men’s 4x100m freestyle relays.
