Milorad Cavic learned all his talk about Phelps just added fuel to Phelps' fire.
And Phelps, the Indiana Jones of swimming, again averted disaster to win big.
An hour before going head-to-head with chief antagonist Cavic, he clunked heads with another swimming during warmups. The collision was hard enough to break the bridge on his swim goggles, cause temporary blurred vision, and throw a fright into coach Bob Bowman.
Yet the result? Phelps set a world record in beating Cavic in the much-anticipated 100-meter butterfly Saturday at swimming's world championships in Rome.
Phelps' swim was reminiscent of the trail-early, then close fast race in which he beat Cavic for Olympic gold in Beijing. Except Saturday's race was more decisive than the one-hundredth-of-a-second thriller of last August, when Phelps' desperate lunge beat Cavic to the wall and sustained his historic march toward a record eight gold medals.
This time, Phelps beat Cavic by a couple eyelashes, rather than a blink: 49.82 seconds vs. 49.95 seconds. It was the first time anyone had gone under 50 seconds for the race.
"It doesn't matter what suit you wear," Phelps said. "It matters how you train."
Phelps celebrated this victory like few others. He punched the water and yanked at his swimsuit, the year-old LZR that Cavic had cheekily offered to replace with the newer polyurethane suits responsible for breaking so many records at this meet. Cavic's meaning was clear -- he didn't want Phelps to have an excuse if he beat him.
"It definitely gives a little extra motivation when there are comments," Phelps told reporters. "That's just part of sport. I think it makes it more exciting."
Cavic, who led by half a body length after the first 50 but knew that wasn't enough, had to hand it to Phelps. Bowman said the race was Phelps' best ever at the distance. Cavic raced in the latest-generation polyurethane suit, which along with the polyurethane-paneled LZR will be banned next year.
The sport's international governing body announced Saturday the high-tech suits, which reduce drag and enhance buoyancy, are out as of Jan. 1.Going into the meet's final day, a staggering 39 world records have been broken, including three Saturday.
Phelps again showed he can keep distractions at bay. At the Olympics, it was a race won despite his goggles filling with water. At the world meet, he came back from a stunning defeat to Paul Biedermann in the 200 freestyle to end on a high note. Saturday's victory came after a warmup swim where he banged heads with Australian swimmer Cate Campbell as they shared a lane. Phelps suffered temporary blurred vision in one eye but was apparently OK for the race just an hour later.
"It took the wind out of me a little bit," Phelps admitted. Campbell was not injured.
You have to wonder whether Cavic wishes he had kept his thoughts to himself. But he didn't sound as if he would in the future.
"I have nothing but respect for Michael," Cavic said. "He is the best. Do I have regrets? I don't see that I did anything wrong."
Cavic, again the catalyst for more Phelps drama, was happy with the race.
"It was an incredible race," Cavic said. "We all went a lot faster than we expected."
Cavic was matter-of-fact in defeat. In the race aftermath, he told Phelps: "You're the man."
Phelps said nothing, simply smiling in return.
No comments:
Post a Comment