Phelps wins 200 butterfly to go 5 for 5 at Annapolis meet

Phelps win again, takes 200 fly in Annapolis

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — 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.

More than 600 swimmers from age 10 and up competed in the GBAC meet, in its 36th year. Phelps had competed here many times as a youth and teenager, but last swam in the NBAC event in 2004.

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. “This meet showed he needs to be in better shape.”