Phelps, Schmitt shine with trials looming

AUSTIN, Texas (AFP) –

Michael Phelps, seen here on May 12, has won the 400 meter medley as club-mate Allison Schmitt stole the show at the Longhorn Elite Invitational.

Michael Phelps, swimming his last warm-up meet before the US Olympic trials, won the 400 meter medley as club-mate Allison Schmitt stole the show at the Longhorn Elite Invitational.

Phelps won the medley in 4:15.88, almost a second ahead of Chase Kalisz, another of his North Baltimore Aquatics team-mates.

Schmitt, the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, set a US Open and pool record with a time of 1:55.04 in the 200m free, eight-hundredths outside the American record she set in Rome in 2009.

It was the second-fastest time in the world this year.

“I feel like I have been on schedule this year, but there’s no way I expected to swim this fast at this meet,” Schmitt said. “I felt good coming in here, and I just gave it all I had. After this race, I know there’s a little more in the tank.”

The 400m medley figured among Phelps’s eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, and he vowed then he wouldn’t swim the demanding event in top international competition again.

However, he has raced it several times this season, sparking speculation he could tackle it in London. Phelps has yet to reveal just what events he wants to swim in his final Olympics.

“We have a plan in place, and we will be ready,” Phelps’s coach Bob Bowman said.

The Austin meeting, organized by the University of Texas aquatic department, is taking place opposite the Santa Clara International, the final stop on USA Swimming’s Grand Prix circuit.

The US Olympic swimming trials start on June 25 in Omaha, Nebraska.