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Phelps wins trials double
MICHAEL Phelps, winner of six gold medals at the Athens Olympics, has qualified for two more events at this year's world championships.
The 19-year-old claimed a pair of events today at the US swimming trials - one the hard way and the other with his accustomed ease.
Phelps had to come from far back in the 100m freestyle. At the 50-metre mark, American record holder Jason Lezak led with a 23.18sec split.
Phelps was seventh at the turn, but began picking off the field one at a time.
He caught Lezak in the waning seconds of the race, finishing first in 49sec flat.
Lezak settled for the runner-up spot in 49.09sec. About thirty-five minutes later Phelps was back in the water, this time for the 200m individual medley.
In the next lane was Ryan Lochte, runner-up to Phelps in the 200m IM at Athens.
Phelps shot into the lead on the butterfly leg, with Lochte right behind. The lanky wunderkind gained some breathing room on the backstroke and breaststroke laps, then put away the race on the conclusive freestyle leg.
Phelps finished in 1min 57.44sec with Lochte nearly a second behind in 1min 58.40sec.
Phelps said afterwards he was done swimming at the trials. His original plan was to swim in tomorrow's 200m backstroke along with Lochte and Aaron Peirsol, who set a world record on Sunday in the 100m back.
"I''''m done for the week," he said. "I''''m going back into training right now. From here on I''''m going to start switching my goals and start focusing on Montreal."
Phelps said today's 100m free - an event he didn''''t swim in Athens - was an important race for him.
"I wanted to secure a spot on the relay team," he said.
Phelps won all five of his races at the trials (100m, 200m and 400m free; 100m fly and 200m IM) and also qualified for the both relay races at worlds.
He said he and his coach, Bob Bowman, are still weighing their options for Montreal.
"Were going to be talking about that tomorrow, to finalize our schedule," said Phelps.
"We wanted to come in here and have a wide variety of options."
Mary DeScenza qualified for a fourth event at the World Championships with a win in her specialty, the 200m butterfly.
DeScenza, timed in 2min 09.00sec, also took second in Fridays 200 fly and was runner-up Saturday in the 200 freestyle.
Her freestyle performance guaranteed her a berth on the US 800m free relay in Montreal.
"It was a very good week, very productive," said the willowy DeScenza, who failed in a bid for the Olympic team after a fourth-place 200 butterfly finish at last years trials.
"I wanted to redeem myself after (the 2004) trials and show the whole world and USA Swimming that I can swim fast and get back up there."
Margaret Hoelzer rounded out the evening with a win over Katie Hoff in the women's 200m backstroke.
Hoelzer, the fifth-place finisher at the Athens Games, clocked a time of 2min 10.42sec. SWIMMING ARTICLES
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