Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Robert Gibbs.
ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES AT MESA
- Thursday, April 14 – Saturday, April 16, 2016
- Skyline Aquatic Center
- Mesa, Arizona (same as Pacific Daylight Time, GMT -7 hours)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (12PM/8PM Eastern Daylight Time)
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Meet Central
- Saturday AM Program
MEN’S 200 METER INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINAL
- FINA A: 2:00.28
- S. Olympic Trials: 2:05.09
Top Three:
- Michael Phelps, North Baltimore Aquatic Club, 1:57.90
- Chase Kalisz, North Baltimore Aquatic Club, 1:59.05
- David Nolan, North Baltimore Aquatic Club, 2:00.89
Michael Phelps led a NBAC sweep of the top three spots. Phelps led wall-to-wall, holding off teammates David Nolan and Chase Kalisz. Nolan was in 2nd place at the halfway mark, but Kalisz passed him on the breast leg and began to inch closer to Phelps, splitting 33.65 to Phelps’s 34.05. It looked like Phelps may have intentionally pushed the breaststroke a little hard, as Kalisz continued to close during the final 50, but Phelps had more than enough of a lead and touched in 1:57.90 to Kalisz’s 1:59.05. That’s not too far off the 1:57.60 Phelps swam in December, which remains the 3rd-fastest time in the world this year. Nolan placed 3rd in 2:00.89.
Behind the NBAC trio, Max Williamson took 4th in 2:02.61. Andrew Seliskar was in 3rd after the fly leg, but steadily lost ground from there, finishing in 2:02.86. He had to hold off Gunnar Bentz, who had the fastest free split in the field at 28.32, but who couldn’t make up enough ground on Seliskar and touched 6th in 2:03.01. Marko Blazebski(2:05.16) and day one 400 IM championship Sean Grieshop (2:07.23) placed 7th and 8th.
Phelps messed up a bit on his own swim history. He actually went 1:57.94 to get the WR. Which isn’t faster than the swim he went tonight.
I mean it is easy to forget your swim history when you’ve broken as many world records and have been swimming as long as he has
He will break the WR in Rio if not Omaha
1:53.50 is very doable.
MP was in 1.56 at Indianapolis GP in 2012. But he swam probably much less tired in season at that time than this year.
Bayarea swim, I really hope he doesn’t break any world record at trials.
He goes to trials just to qualify. 51 low in the 100 fly/1.54 in the 200 fly/1.56 in the 200 IM are well enough to qualify.
Then time drops in Rio when it counts.
Bobo,
You may not want or like Phelps to swim fast whenever and wherever he wants to. But I will be overjoyed when Phelps break WR in Omaha and then in Rio.