Phelps Misses Swim Final

Michael Phelps failed to reach his first major final event since 2005

Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps failed to reach his first major final event since 2005 when he came up short of reaching the 400-meter individual final Thursday at the Pan Pacific Championships.

The swimming star who won 14 events at the Olympics, registered only the fourth-fastest time of the heat, slower than compatriots Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary, who took the two U.S. berths for the final to be held later in Irvine, California.

The Pan Pacific Games have competitors from the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and 17 other nations outside Europe. The finals pit just two countries against each other.

Phelps won two gold medals at the Olympics and holds the world-record in the event.

This is the first time that Phelps will miss a major final since the 2005 World Championships 400-meter freestyle event. Lochte finished with this year’s fastest time of 4:08.77 seconds while Clary clocked in at 4:09.20 to finish second.

Phelps won the freestyle event Wednesday in convincing fashion, but he was not optimistic about qualifying for the medley final.

"It's going to be a hard one. It's going to be painful. I know that. I've got to be able to get up and swim in the morning," he said after winning the 200m.

Phelps led throughout the race and beat Nick D’Arcy by 0.62 seconds. It was the fastest time in the world this year, but still slower than the meeting record of 1:53.80 set back in 1996.

"I was hurting," Phelps told reporters. "About the last 15 meters, I was like, 'Please get to the wall.' I felt a splash of water in the lane next to me and I was like, 'Please don't get run down. Please don't get run down.' "

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday August 21 2010, 9:06 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0