Michael Phelps flops at US nationals

Omnisports Pulse

August 7, 2014 5:18 AM

Michael Phelps finished seventh in the 100 metres freestyle final at the US national championships in Irvine on Wednesday.

After qualifying third fastest for his first national final since 2012, the all-time Olympic Games gold medal leader only beat one swimmer to the wall as Nathan Adrian won in a time of 48.31 seconds.

It was Adrian then daylight in California, with long-time Phelps rival Ryan Lochte (48.96secs) finishing second - although there was only 0.38secs between second place and last.

Phelps finished in a time of 49.17secs, much slower than his qualifying time of 48.77secs.

The 18-time Olympic gold medallist had the slowest reaction time of all competitors in the final, and turned in last position after one lap in California - before reeling in Seth Stubblefield (49.34secs) to avoid the dishonour of finishing at the foot of the field.

Phelps sat out his pet event - the 200m butterfly - which was taken out by Tom Shields, while the women's 200m butterfly was won in commanding fashion by Cammile Adams - with her closest competitor 1.62secs back.

Missy Franklin - a four-time gold medal winner at the London Olympics in 2012 - claimed the 100m freestyle title in a championship-record time of 53.43secs.

Katie Ledecky won the women's 800m freestyle, spacing the field by 6.22secs, while it was a thrilling finish in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay - with the team of Katie Maili, Madison Kennedy, Melissa Gates and Nora McCullagh winning by 0.01secs.

Connor Jaeger won the men's 1500m freestyle, while the team of Daxon Hill, Paul Powers, Michael Chadwick and Mark Weber took out the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.

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