Serbia's Milorad Cavic moved a step closer to a rematch with Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly on Friday as he led the way into the semi-finals at the swimming World Championships.
Serbia's Milorad Cavic moved a step closer to a rematch with Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly on Friday as he led the way into the semi-finals at the swimming World Championships.
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Cavic won his heat in 50.56sec, while Phelps won his in 50.90, joint second-quickest overall alongside fellow American Tyler McGill and three-hundredths of a second faster than Australian Andrew Lauterstein.
Phelps edged Cavic by one-hundredth of a second in the 100m butterfly in Beijing last year to stay on track for his unprecedented haul of eight gold medals at one Olympics.
Cavic, who was gliding in at the finish, still believes he touched the wall first, but that Phelps's stronger hit on the timing pad got the American the victory.
It was the only one of Phelps's eight Beijing victories that did not produce a world record, but the American finally lowered the four-year-old mark with a time of 50.22sec at the US championships earlier this month.
Brazil's Cesar Cielo, fresh from his triumph in the 100m freestyle, was the top qualifier in the 50m in a championship record 21.37sec.
Cielo, who won 50m free gold at the Beijing Games, led Sweden's Stefan Nystrand and world record-holder Fred Bousqet of France into the semis.
Former world champion Roland Schoeman of South Africa, Croatia's Duje Draganja, France's Amaury Leveaux and Americans Cullen Jones and Nathan Adrian all got safely through.
World record-holder Kirsty Coventry, who was shut out of the 100m backstroke medals, set a championship record of 2:06.72 in the 200m backstroke heats.
She was almost a second faster than Gemma Spofforth, Britain's 100m backstroke gold medallist here, was second-fastest in 2:07.69, followed by American Elizabeth Beisel and Australian Belinda Hocking.
Sweden's Therese Alshammar topped the times in the women's 50m butterfly in 25.44sec. She was followed by world record-holder Marleen Veldhuis (25.58) and Norway's Ingvild Snildal, and the morning's fast times made for some notable casualties.
Dara Torres, who got the late nod to represent the United States in the 50m butterfly, failed to qualify.
Her heats time of 26.41 left her 17th overall, tied with Australian Libby Trickett and one place out of the semi-finals.
"It's so fast," said Trickett, who thought her time would have made the final at the 2007 worlds.
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