Column by John Lohn, Swimming World senior writer<\/i><\/p>\n
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico, July 11. WELCOME back to our loyal readers. After unveiling my early women's picks for the World Championships a week ago, I've been itching to reveal my preliminary selections for the men's competition. As the competition begins and psych sheets become finalized, it's my intent to release my final choices. Thanks to you all for your thoughts and comments, and we look forward to more give-and-take this week. So, without further ado, here is where I'm leaning for the guys.<\/p>\n
50 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Cesar Cielo
\nSilver: Fred Bousquet
\nBronze: Nathan Adrian
\n**This is an event that could surely change depending on the outcome of Cesar Cielo's hearing with CAS in light of a failed drug test.<\/p>\n
100 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Nathan Adrian
\nSilver: Cesar Cielo
\nBronze: Brent Hayden
\n**American's premier sprinter follows up his win at last summer's Pan Pacific Champs by ruling the globe.<\/p>\n
200 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Michael Phelps
\nSilver: Tae Hwan Park
\nBronze: Ryan Lochte
\n**Honestly, this thing could go so many different ways. It should be the best event of the competition.<\/p>\n
400 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Tae Hwan Park
\nSilver: Sun Yang
\nBronze: Ous Mellouli
\n**The Olympic champion could be the first man under 3:40.<\/p>\n
800 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Sun Yang
\nSilver: Ous Mellouli
\nBronze: Ryan Cochrane
\n**A near-miss in the 400 free is eased with a victory over twice the distance.<\/p>\n
1500 Freestyle<\/b>
\nGold: Sun Yang
\nSilver: Ous Mellouli
\nBronze: Ryan Cochrane
\n**Can the most vaunted record on the books, Grant Hackett's historic performance, survive the onslaught of Sun? Time will tell if Sun is can do it, or is too worn down by his previous races.<\/p>\n
50 Backstroke<\/b>
\nGold: Camille Lacourt
\nSilver: Liam Tancock
\nBronze: Junya Koga
\n**Even a pure sprinter like Tancock can't stay with the Frenchman.<\/p>\n
100 Backstroke<\/b>
\nGold: Camille Lacourt
\nSilver: Ryosuke Irie
\nBronze: Nick Thoman
\n**This is where Nick Thoman breaks through in long-course action on a big platform.<\/p>\n
200 Backstroke<\/b>
\nGold: Ryan Lochte
\nSilver: Ryosuke Irie
\nBronze: Tyler Clary
\n**Wouldn't be surprised if any of these three took the gold medal.<\/p>\n
50 Breaststroke<\/b>
\nGold: Cameron van der Burgh
\nSilver: Felipe Silva
\nBronze: Hendrik Feldwehr
\n**I don't think any of these guys will factor in the 100 breast.<\/p>\n
100 Breaststroke<\/b>
\nGold: Kosuke Kitajima
\nSilver: Alexander Dale Oen
\nBronze: Brenton Rickard
\n**We all know Kitajima saves his best for Olympic years, but doubting him here would be unwise.<\/p>\n
200 Breaststroke<\/b>
\nGold: Naoya Tomita
\nSilver: Kosuke Kitajima
\nBronze: Daniel Gyurta
\n**Tomita takes down guys with highly impressive international portfolios.<\/p>\n
50 Butterfly<\/b>
\nGold: Cesar Cielo
\nSilver: Matt Targett
\nBronze: Milorad Cavic
\n**Cielo's status again throws in event in prediction disarray.<\/p>\n
100 Butterfly<\/b>
\nGold: Michael Phelps
\nSilver: Milorad Cavic
\nBronze: Laszlo Cseh
\n**The performance by Phelps at the Canada Cup in Montreal showed he's ready to roll in this event.<\/p>\n
200 butterfly<\/b>
\nGold: Michael Phelps
\nSilver: Takeshi Matsuda
\nBronze: Laszlo Cseh
\n**Yes, Phelps has dropped some 200 fly races of late. Won't happen on the world stage.<\/p>\n
200 Individual Medley<\/b>
\nGold: Ryan Lochte
\nSilver: Michael Phelps
\nBronze: Laszlo Cseh
\n**The Americans have finished gold-silver on a number of occasions in major competitions.<\/p>\n
400 Individual Medley<\/b>
\nGold: Ryan Lochte
\nSilver: Laszlo Cseh
\nBronze: Tyler Clary
\n**Lochte secures his third individual gold medal of the meet.<\/p>\n
400 Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nGold: United States
\nSilver: France
\nBronze: Russia
\n**Another showdown between the United States and France goes the way of the Stars and Stripes.<\/p>\n
800 Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nGold: United States
\nSilver: Russia
\nBronze: China
\n**The gap between the United States and its foes has lessened, but not enough.<\/p>\n
400 Medley Relay<\/b>
\nGold: France
\nSilver: United States
\nBronze: Germany
\n**A hunch has France holding on after building a sizable early lead.<\/p>\n
Follow John Lohn on Twitter: @JohnLohn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Column by John Lohn, Swimming World senior writer PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico, July 11. WELCOME back to our loyal readers. After unveiling my early women's picks for the World Championships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n