Fresh off his first career silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay, Michael Phelps returned to the pool Monday morning for the first round of qualifying for the 200m butterfly, and he made it through to the semifinals in comfortable fashion.
Michael Phelps Advances To 200m Fly Semis
When he was in the pool, he probably didn’t feel too great when touching the wall third in a qualifying heat — one of five before the two-heat semis — but Heat 5 was just the place to be. Austrian Dinko Jukic had the fastest qualifying time, and he was in Phelps’ pool, touching in 1:54.79. Fellow American Tyler Clary finished in second in the heat and in qualifying with 1:54.96. Phelps finished in fifth in qualifying, comfortably finding a place among the 16 semis qualifiers, in 1:55.53.
Clary, who’s swimming in his first Olympics, made waves earlier in the summer by calling Phelps out for lacking in work ethic. The times in the first round of qualifying are meaningless, but I’m sure Clary was out to finish ahead of Phelps and back up his words.
The semis of the 200m fly will take place at 3:32 p.m. ET, and the finals will be held on Tuesday.
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