GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) – It was raining, and it was pouring for Michael Phelps’ return to international competition. It was anything but boring.
The 18-time Olympic gold medalist advanced to the 100-meter freestyle final at the Pan Pacific championships on Friday, with his time of 48.45 seconds ranking him third overall in the preliminaries and second quickest among the 12 Americans. His U.S. teammate Nathan Adrian set a meet record 48.05 to lead qualifying, edging Australia’s two-time world champion James Magnussen in the same heat – the pair finished first and second at the London Olympics.
For Phelps, it was a step toward the 2015 world championships only four months back into competitive swimming after a short-lived retirement following the 2012 Olympics.
“I’m excited to get today out of the way and now time to move forward and hopefully have some fast swims throughout the meet,” the 29-year-old Phelps said.
The competition, featuring swimmers mainly from Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States, is being held in an outdoor pool at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre. It was cold, wet and windy on the opening day, and cool with raining again on Friday morning.