Phelps Sets U.S. Mark in 200 Free

MONTREAL —  Michael Phelps was slowly treading at one end of the pool, an arm draped across the lane rope as he stared at his name on the scoreboard.

Yep, it was the one on top.

Now that’s more like it.

Phelps shook off the bitter disappointment of his first event at the World Swimming Championships with an emphatic victory in the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday night, holding off Australian star Grant Hackett.

“Hopefully,” Phelps said, “this race will help me continue on throughout the meet.”

The 20-year-old American got off to a dismal start in Montreal, shockingly failing to qualify for the 400 free final. But he shared gold as part of a winning U.S. relay team, and now he’s got his first individual title of the championships.

Phelps is still on pace to match the seven medals he won at the 2003 worlds -- his breakout performance -- but he’ll come up at least one short of his eight-medal haul at the Athens Olympics.

That’s OK. His focus is squarely on 2008.

“It’s all pretty much a learning process,” Phelps said. “Hopefully, everything that happens now will help me leading up to Beijing.”

Phelps hung on when South Africa’s Ryk Neethling went out strong, seized the lead at the midway point under world-record pace and had enough left to get to the wall ahead of Hackett.

Phelps’ time of 1:45.20 fell short of Ian Thorpe’s 2001 record (1:44.06) but broke his American mark, set during a bronze-medal swim at the Olympics last summer.

The two guys who beat him in Athens, Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband, skipped the worlds -- their absence duly noted by Phelps.

“I’m sure, if they’re like me, they’re watching all the races and all the results,” he said. “They are great competitors and hopefully I’ll have my chance to race them at tiptop shape.”

The Americans won three of five events on the third day of swimming, giving them six golds and 12 medals overall at the pool.

Another U.S. teenager emerged as a star when 17-year-old Kate Ziegler swam to victory in the 1,500 free. But the stalwart of the women’s team, five-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin, was upset by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry in the 100 backstroke.

Australia’s Leisel Jones finally earned a long-denied victory in the 100 breaststroke. She beat 18-year-old American Jessica Hardy, who broke Jones’ world record in the semifinals but settled for silver in the final.

The third U.S. victory of the night was totally expected.

World-record holder and Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol continued his backstroke dominance with a victory in the 100. Randall Bal made it a 1-2 American finish by taking silver, the bronze going to Hungary’s Laszio Cseh.