Michael Phelps was readying for battle Tuesday, looking forward to taking on German sensation Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle final at the swimming World Championships.
Michael Phelps was readying for battle Tuesday, looking forward to taking on German sensation Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle final at the swimming World Championships.
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"I never back down from a challenge," Phelps said after he booked his semi-final berth in the 200m butterfly on Tuesday morning.
After getting that task out of the way - with the second-fastest time of the morning behind Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski - Phelps said he would rest up for the freestyle final that will launch the evening session.
Phelps set the 200m free world record in winning gold at the Beijing Olympics, part of his unprecedented eight-gold haul.
It has been a long time since the US superstar has seemed vulnerable in one of his signature events, but Biedermann promised to offer a severe test.
Biedermann eclipsed Australian legend Ian Thorpe's seven-year-old 400m freestyle record on Sunday.
Biedermann, who cheerfully admitted his high-tech polyurethane swimsuit gave him some two seconds in the 400m free, now has his sights on Phelps.
The German will start the 200m free final as the top seed in lane four. Phelps insisted he was looking forward to the duel.
"It's going to be good," he said. "Hopefully I'm going to get some rest today and be ready to make it a race."
Phelps has studiously avoided references to the suit controversy, offering terse non-answers when grilled about his opinions on the polymer suits that are to be banned after this year.
The technology has contributed to 11 world records in the first two days of the championships, and, critics feel, made a shambles of the sport.
"Usually you don't see six seconds dropped in the 400 in a year," was all Phelps said of Biedermann's phenomenal progress. "I think he was in the final of the 200 free last year (in Beijing) and he's dropped like three seconds in that, so he's having a good meet."
However, Phelps is famous for rising to the big occasion. He hasn't lost a major individual race since the 2005 World Championships.
He won five of five individual events at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne and at the Beijing Games.
"I have a feeling we're going to have some fire," said Bob Bowman, Phelps's coach and head coach of the US men's team. "At least one guy - MP - I think will bring the heat."
In other heats today, Australia's Brenton Rickard returned to action after winning the 100m breaststroke in world record time and qualified third-fastest in the 50m breast. South African Cameron Van Der Burgh, bronze medallist in the 100m breast on Monday night, led the way into the semi-finals ahead of world record-holder Franca Silva Felipe of Brazil.
"Not great this morning but good enough," Rickard said.
He said speedster Van Der Burgh would have the upper hand in the one-lap race, but he was looking forward to giving it a shot.
"He's a bit of a rocket, but it's racing and a lot of things happen, even in the space of 50m," Rickard said.
American Dana Vollmer posted the best time in the women's 200m freestyle heats ahead of compatriot Allison Schmitt and Britain's Joanne Jackson.
Federica Pellegrini, the world record-holder and Olympic champion and a national heroine after her record-setting 400m freestyle triumph here on Sunday, notched the sixth-fastest time going into the semi-finals.
Olympic silver medallist Sara Isakovic of Slovenia and bronze medallist Pang Jiaying also got safely through to the semis, as did Australian Stephanie Rice.
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