Michael Phelps, and many of his NBAC and former Club Wolverine teammates, spent the weekend in Montreal, Canada competing at the Canada Cup.
We didn’t get to see Phelps in the 200 fly, which is probably the best benchmark of how his recent streak of heavy training has paid off. This was probably a wise decision: there was big competition in that race (including Wu Peng in a win in 1:56.71), and this meet needed to be more about building confidence in his training than anything.
But in the 100 fly, Phelps showed that his speed has definitely come around, when he blasted a 51.32 for the world’s best time this year. His splits went 24.6/26.7, which means that he came back only a tenth slower than he was at Nationals last year. More importantly, he came back strong without losing any of the early-speed he’s had throughout the season. Things are really turning around for Phelps headed towards World’s.
Phelps’ North Baltimore teammate Chris Brady also had a great swim in the 100 fly, with a 52.77 for second-place. Much like Phelps, he’s had a lot of trouble closing his races all-season long, but in this swim he shaped that up a bit to finish in 52.77, which is his best time since 2009 at the World University Games. With this swim, Brady becomes an overwhelming favorite at US Nationals and will very likely grab a spot on the Pan-Am team.
Phelps’ 200 free swim was decent, though not as good as his 100 fly. He ended up touching in 1:47.46, ahead of Club Wolverine’s Matthew Patton and Canada’s Ryan Cochrane.
Other Notable Results
In the men’s 100 free, Club Wolverine’s Bobby Savulich out-touched Canada’s Brent Hayden in the 100 free 49.68-49.69. For Savulich, that’s his best time of the season and just a tenth off of his time from Nationals last year. Hayden is still flying way under the radar this year, after leading the world in the 100 free in 2010. His times have been consistently slower than they were last year, without much explanation. Perhaps he took a different training approach last year with two taper meets (Pan Pacs and the Commonwealth Games), but he’s really off of his game so far this season.
Former NCAA Champion from Texas A&M Julia Wilkinson won the 200 IM in 2:12.26, which moves her to 13th in the World Rankings. She also had a great swim in the 100 backstroke (which is her primary stroke) in 1:00.33. That puts her at a tie for 12th in the World Rankings and is a career-best time for her. It also leaves her only a tenth shy of the Canadian Record.
More importantly, Wilkinson said after the meet that this was the first time in 3 years since major shoulder surgery that she could sleep on her right side without any pain whatsoever. That’s a huge last hurdle to get over, and with that sort of confidence headed towards Shanghai, I could definitely see her becoming the first Canadian woman under a minute in the 100 back.
One Candian Record that DID go down in Montreal was that in the women’s 50 fly, where Katherine Savard smashed Victoria Poon’s two-year old mark when she touched in 26.49. That time moves her up to 16th in the world this year.
An interesting American name that showed up in this meet was former Maryland swimmer Annie Fittin. Fittin was one of my favorite darkhorses as a senior for the Terrapins last year. She showed up at this meet and placed 2nd to Savard in the 50 fly (27.10) and won the 50 free in 25.61. Both of those times blew-away her previous career-best marks. She was a big-time late bloomer at the NCAA level: coming on like a freight-train her senior year. She has definitely not lost that momentum going into her pro career, and she’s a name for people to start scribbling on their chalkboards in the next year or two. She’s definitely the type that could do very well training in Europe or on the World Cup circuit due to her pure-speed.
