Michael Phelps not happy with his performance
The best national swimmer is not happy with how he performed even after winning the 49th U.S. National title and used words as intense as ‘terrible’ for his swimming.
After winning the 48th and 49th title at the U.S. National Championships, the 14 time gold medallist was recorded to have said that he felt awful in the water and that he needed to improve his performance in the pool. The aforementioned titles were earned by him after he won the 200 metre free style and butterfly stroke. Since 2009, this event was his major meet in the pool and the lack of practise was evident through his performances. He managed to finish the 200 metre butterfly in 1 minute and 56 seconds, almost 4 and a half seconds later than the world record that he set last year at Rome. Yet, it was good enough that the Olympian finished one second before the second place finisher. However, Phelps called this as the worst fly of his athletic career. Michael’s long time rival, Lochte, pushed hard against Phelps but he knew that it wouldn’t be easy to swim past the champion. While Phelps had already confessed, a week ago, to The Baltimore Sun that he was having a hard time practising freestyle stroke. However, the swimmer was seen improving his technique with the help of his coach, Bob Bowman. The gold medallist was not pleased with the way he swam in the event. Sports analysts consider the 200 metre butterfly stroke more crucial than the free style. He worked harder in the former than he did in the latter.
Phelps, the best swimmer of the year 2010, swam in the shortest time in the world this year, and defeated his arch rival, the Olympic medallist, Ryan Lochte. Lochte won the gold medal in the Olympic 200 metre backstroke, and thus it was not that difficult for him to swim on the same level as Phelps up to the 150 metre mark. This time round, he was three seconds more than his personal record of the shortest time. Apart from the national championships taking place at the moment, Phelps will participate in three other competitions this year. The U.S. Swimming Championships are part of the selection trial for the upcoming contests. This particular event does not hold much importance for Phelps because it will just make him a part of only one international event of the year at the Pan Pacific Championships, scheduled to take place in Irvine, California, at the end of August. Michael Phelps is not practising vigorously this year, since there are no major events like the Olympics due this year. The important championships are to take place in the following 2 years.
One of the members of the team selected to represent the U.S. national team in the Pan Pacific Championships is the Olympic gold medallist Natalie Coughlin. She earned a place in the team en route defeating the fast finishing Missy Franklin. Natalie left Missy in the women’s 100 metre backstroke. David Plummer, another selected member of the team offset the Olympic champion and record setter Aoran Peirsol in the men’s 100 metre backstroke. The competition between the two was crucial, and the former emerged victorious over the latter by three hundreds of a second.
The next event, which will take place later this month is not that of a big deal for the Olympic champion and the winner of the 50 national titles, more than any other swimmer so far. Phelps will start training and practising seriously for the Olympics 2012 and the other major international championships to be held next year. Any vigorous exercise before these major events are most likely to make Michael get annoyed and frustrated with his times which can adversely affect his performance in the 2011 and 2010 championships. The question that is under the spotlight at the moment is that who will be Phelps’ biggest competitors in the following contests. Fans are looking forward to see the undefeated, record holder and the fastest swimmer jump into the pool in the 2012 Olympics.
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