Streamlined News

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 21. AFTER his 47.8 in the 100 free earlier this week, everyone was anxious to see what Cesar Cielo would do in the final of the 50 free at the Pan American Games, and the Brazilian did not disappoint.

Cielo won in 21.58, which is only six hundredths of a second slower than he went at the world championships. Bruno Fratus, who has the second-fastest time in the world, could not get under 22 seconds, settling for silver in 22.05. Hanser Garcia, who is breaking onto the sprinting scene at this meet, was third in 22.15. As a side note, sprint freestyle is shown as a weakness at Pan Ams for the Americans, as the US was unable to get a medal in the 50, 100 or 200, but showed good distance freestyle capabilities with wins in the 400 and 1500.

The United States only won one swimming gold medal today, and that came in the women’s 200 backstroke. Elizabeth Pelton went 2:08.99, which improves her best time this year by a tenth of a second. Pelton is still the third-fastest American in the event, about a second behind Elizabeth Beisel.

Albert Subirats’ first race since being cleared for not showing up at three consecutive drug tests was the men’s 100 fly, and he won in 52.37. And Canada finally got a gold medal, with Ashley McGregor winning the 200 breast with a 2:28.04.

This weekend will see lots of college dual meet competition in the United States. The women’s team at the University of Texas begins competition today at the SMU Classic, which will also see teams from SMU, Florida, Wisconsin and Louisville. The University of Arizona men’s and women’s teams will host UNLV today. Auburn men’s and women’s teams train together, but this weekend they’re traveling to different parts of the country. The men will race at Louisiana State, while the women are off to Notre Dame. And the University of Southern California opens its season this weekend with a women’s dual meet against Washington State and a men’s meet against Cal State-Bakersfield.

Also taking place this weekend is the fourth of seven stops on the FINA World Cup circuit. Swimmers are in Berlin to earn more money and get some racing in before settling into final preparations for the Olympics. Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps are there, as are a few members of the USA Swimming youth team. Phelps will get another opportunity to race Paul Biedermann in the 200 freestyle after losing to Biedermann earlier this week in Stockholm. And Phelps will look to win the 100 and 200 butterfly races after finishing fifth in the 100 and third in the 200 in Sweden. Franklin won four events in Stockholm, and could repeat that effort this weekend. We’ll bring you complete coverage of the World Cup meet on swimmingworld.com.

Editor’s note: The above paragraph in this transcript should mention Moscow instead of Stockholm.

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