Phelps Will Seek Challenge At Local Christmas Meet

ROME, July 29 -- Michael Phelps plans to provide quite a holiday treat to Baltimore-Washington area swim fans this year. He said after winning the 200-meter butterfly final Wednesday night that he plans to compete in some local meets in 25-yard pools just to "see how fast I can go."

Already tentatively on his calendar: the North Baltimore Aquatic Club Christmas Meet, which takes place Dec. 12-14 at the Naval Academy.

"I have some things I'd like to do in short-course yards," said Phelps, who has rarely swum short-course events of any kind. He is now a part-owner of NABC.

Bob Bowman, Phelps's coach, said Phelps also had been planning on swimming two short-course world cup events in Stockholm and Berlin in November, but might reconsider because of projected delays in putting a ban on long-length, non-textile suits into effect.

The sport's world governing body, FINA, said Tuesday it might not be able to put a ban on long-length, non-textile swimsuits into effect until May of next year.

Meantime, USA Swimming said it intends to participate in an international meet in December that enforces its own high-tech swimsuit ban, and will consider banning suits for domestic meets if FINA does not have a suit ban in place by January.

The United States will compete in a four-nation meet with France, Russia and Britain that is expected to allow only short suits whose fabrics date from 2007 (such as the Speedo FS-Pro), USA Swimming National Team Director Mark Schubert said. The meet will take place Dec. 19-20 in Manchester, England.

Descenza Sets World Mark

Mary Descenza dropped three seconds off of her best time and set a world record in the 200 butterfly heat Wednesday morning, touching the wall in 2 minutes 4.14 seconds. She topped the previous mark of 2:04.18 set by Liu Zige of China.

DeScenza, a Tyr-sponsored athlete, switched to the acclaimed Jaked speedsuit, but attempted to be discreet about the switch by blacking out the Jaked label.

"Oh my God, I didn't even think I was going that fast," said Descenza, who finished second in the night's semifinals with a time of 2:04.33. "It was a very big surprise, an awesome surprise. . . . Moments like this here are the ones I live for."

Towson's Pelton Falls Short

Despite winning her heat in the 50 backstroke in 28.86 seconds, Towson's Elizabeth Pelton failed to advance to the semifinals. She posted the 22nd-best time overall.

"I'm kind of mad I didn't make it back," Pelton said. "It's a 50; it'd be fun to swim again tonight. But no big [deal]."

Pelton has the 200 back and the preliminary round of the 400 medley relay remaining.