News Round-Up:

USA: Michael Phelps continued to put the long medley back at the heart of his Olympic preparation with a 4:16.55 victory in the 400m at the Austin Grand Prix, while Baltimore teammate Allison Schmitt set a second pool record in as many days, her 1:55.83 win in the 200m freestyle the performance of the meet so far.


Olympic champion and world record holder, Phelps dominated the medley ahead of Conor Dwyer, 4:21.16, and Canada’s Andrew Ford, 4:21.99. Schmitt wiped more than 2sec off the meet mark as she rattled Missy Franklin, 1:57.86, and Katie Hoff, 1:59.34. 

Franklin later claimed the 200m back in 2:08.18 well up on Britain's Swansea-based improver Georgia Davies, on 2:11.10, and Kendyl Stewart, 2:11.60. Hoff also finished top 3 in another even, her 4:39.74 effort in the 400m medley leaving her second to the challenger who had battled alongside her all the way, Cammile Adams, who broke away on freestyle to win in 4:38.80, third place going to Canada’s Alexis Komarnycky in 4:46.06.

Ricky Berens took the 200m freestyle in 1:47.92 ahead of Matt McLean, 1:48.02, and  Michael Klueh, 1:49.79. Amanda Weir added the 50m dash to her collection of wins after victory in the 100m, her 25.23 a touch too much for Madison Kennedy, on 25.43, and Jane Trepp (EST), on 25.52.

Matt Grevers, on 1:57.76, and Great Britain’s Ryan Murphy, on 1:58.96, had a footnote to put on their career records as they held Olympic champion Ryan Lochte at bay in the 200m backstroke, the world champion's 1:59.53 confirmation that all such meets at this stage of Olympic season need to be viewed in the context of the hefty workload being endured at different levels and stages of preparation in different programmes.

Winner of the 100m on day 1 of the meet as the sole sub-49er, Nathan Adrian took the dash as the only sub-22 man, his 21.94 victory getting the better of Auburn-based Frenchman Fred Bousquet, 22.05, and a comeback trailer to keep an eye on, 2000 Olympic champion and 2001 world champion Anthony Ervin, on 22.27.

Australia: On the last day of action at Victoria State Titles, Matt Targett cracked out a 22.23 win in the 50 free ahead of teammate Cameron Prosser, 22.60. Great Britain’s Jessica Dickons pipped her Britain teammate Ellen Gandy 2:09.50 to 2:11.39 in the 200m butterfly; Melanie Schlanger claimed the 200m freestyle in 1:58.07; and 17-year old Yuki Tezuka, of Japan, clocked 4:19.89 in the 400 medley to enter the all-time top 25 from his country in 25th, having stepped up from a lifetime best of 4:21.93 last year.

Some other notable results at the meet: Men - 200 free: Jarrod Killey 1:48.28; Nick Ffrost 1: 49.20; Cameron McEvoy 1:49.25. 200m back - Ashley Delaney 1:59.41; 100m breaststroke - Brenton Rickard 1:01.27; 200m breaststroke - Michael Jamieson (GBR) 2:12.15; 50 'fly - Matt Targett 23.51; 100 'fly - Chris Wright 52.97. Women: 100m butterfly - Ellen Gandy (GBR) 57.96 (Libby Trickett, Olympic champion on the comeback trail, 1:00.83; 200 medley Alicia Coutts 2:12.18.