International Capsules: Phelps wins again, beating Cavic in 100 fly

ROME — He defiantly spit out a mouthful of a water, climbed atop the lane rope, pumped his fists furiously and tugged on that supposedly inferior swimsuit.

The message was clear: Don’t mess with Michael Phelps.

Milorad Cavic tried to get in his head and wound up looking at his back, losing again to the guy who beat him at the Beijing Olympics.

This time, there was no doubt about it.

"There are always things that fire me up and motivate me," Phelps said Saturday, after becoming the first swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly. "That’s just how I tick."

He stayed close over the outward lap and rallied on the return to beat Cavic with a stunning time of 49.82 at the world swimming championships. Cavic also broke 50 seconds, but 49.95 only got him a silver — and plenty of words to eat.

He wasn’t nearly as close as last year’s Beijing Olympics, when Phelps famously won by one-hundredth of a second on the way to eight gold medals, over Cavic’s objections that he actually touched first.

"That satisfied me a little bit," Phelps quipped with that crooked grin of his. "I set it up perfectly."

His reaction was nearly as memorable. Phelps hopped on the rope that had separated him from Cavic — eyes searing, jaw jutting out. He pulled at both sides of his skintight LZR Racer swimsuit, letting his rival know that he heard about his offer to get Phelps one of those faster polyurethane suits so he wouldn’t have any excuses if he lost in a Speedo.

No need, Milorad.

Phelps did just fine with his own attire.

"I’ve never seen him that emotional," Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman said.

The two rivals finally shook hands, but that was about it.

Nothing more needed to be said.

"He congratulated me and kind of smiled a bit, but I have a feeling that our battle is going to go back and forth for a while," Phelps said.

Cavic did say one thing to Phelps: "You’re the man."

"He just looked at me and smiled," Cavic said. "He knows it."

In one of the most memorable events at Beijing, Phelps pulled out an improbable victory on his final half-stroke to beat Cavic by the narrowest possible margin. Without that win, Phelps would not have broken Mark Spitz’s record for most gold medals in a single games.

Cavic has stewed over the loss ever since, believing he touched first but didn’t put as much pressure on the touchpad as Phelps, who ad-libbed an extra lunge and crashed into the wall much harder. Even though all electronic and photographic evidence shows Phelps won, Cavic repeated his claims when he got to Rome.

He then tried to play some mind games with Phelps, saying it was the American’s own fault for sticking with a Speedo suit that isn’t as fast as the fully rubberized models such as the Arena X-Glide, which Cavic wears.

The Serbian offered to get Phelps an X-Glide "within the hour," or buy him a similar suit out of his own pocket. Cavic said he would really prefer to race Phelps wearing nothing but briefs, so everyone would know who the best man is without any help from the suits.

Phelps said he would do his talking in the pool.

"He loves the big races, loves the energy," Bowman said. "He sort of thrives on that, while some other swimmers don’t."

Phelps set his second world record of the fastest meet in history and got back the mark Cavic snatched away a night earlier with a time of 51.01 in the semifinals.

Phelps also won his fourth gold medal of the championships, to go along with that silver he grudgingly accepted after losing to Germany’s Paul Biedermann in the 200 free. Phelps has one event left — the 400 medley relay Sunday night, assuming the U.S. doesn’t mess up in the morning prelims. The Americans will be a heavy favorite in that one, as always.

Three other world records were set Saturday, bringing the total to 39 with one day left at the final meet for high-tech bodysuits that have everything but a motor attached to them.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe took down her own mark in the 200 backstroke, winning in 2 minutes, 4.81 seconds. Russia’s Anastasia Zueva also went under Coventry’s old mark of 2:05.24, but 2:04.94 was only good enough for the silver. American Elizabeth Beisel claimed bronze.

China claimed the record in the women’s 400-meter medley relay. Li Zhesi finished it off in 3:52.19 to beat the mark set by Australia (3:52.69) at the Beijing Olympics. The Aussies also went under the old mark, settling for silver in 3:52.58. Germany took the bronze.

The winning team also included Zhao Jing, Chen Huijia and Jiao Liuyang.

In a semifinal heat of a non-Olympic event, Britain’s Liam Tancock set a world record of 24.08 in the 50 backstroke, eclipsing the mark of 24.33 held by American Randall Bal. Junya Koga of Japan also went under the previous record time to win the second heat at 24.29. The final is Sunday night.

Cesar Cielo of Brazil completed a sweep of the freestyle sprints with the 50-meter title. Cielo added to his title in the 100 with a one-lap time of 21.08 to hold off world-record holder Fred Bousquet (21.21) and fellow Frenchman Amaury Leveaux (21.25).

Managing to win world titles without world records: Australia’s Marieke Guehrer in the women’s 50 fly and Lotte Friis of Denmark in the women’s 800 freestyle. Olympic champion and 800 world-record holder Rebecca Adlington finished fourth.

After switching suits, going from Speedo to Jaked, 42-year-old American Dara Torres barely managed to qualify for the final of the 50 free. She was eighth fastest in the semifinals, claiming the final spot in Sunday’s race but not giving herself much chance to duplicate her silver-medal showing at Beijing, where she lost to Germany’s Britta Steffen by one-hundredth of a second.

Phelps’ last individual event in Rome was a classic tortoise-versus-hare matchup. Cavic knew he would need a big lead at the turn. Phelps fully aware he would have to be close enough to pull it out with his typically strong finish.

The day didn’t start well. At the warmup pool, Phelps collided with Australian teenager Cate Campbell and broke his goggles.

"We were all a little freaked out," Phelps said. "I was kind of blurry in my left eye a little bit. But it ended up going away. I tried to really just get that out of my head."

Bowman asked if he wanted to drop out.

No way.

The two rivals entered the deck with all the hype of a heavyweight fight. Cavic played right along — patting his heart, crossing himself twice and staring down Phelps as they waited to step up on the blocks. The American was facing Cavic but just looked right past him, as it he wasn’t a factor.

"We face each other, but I don’t look that way. I look up in the crowd," Phelps said. Still, "it’s literally like a straight showdown. It’s like boxers coming face to face for a weigh in. I think that’s kind of cool for the sport."

Then, they were off. Cavic knew he was in trouble when Phelps was right on his shoulder as they kicked away from the far wall, just 0.77 separating them.

"I was pretty sure I was going to be ahead at the first turn," said Cavic, who wanted to be at least a second ahead. "When I saw him right there, uh oh."

Phelps appeared to be sneaking underwater glances in Cavic’s direction all the way back, then finished in one last swoop of his arms. Bare-chested teammate Ryan Lochte, watching from the sunny side of the stands, kept screaming, "Come on!" Mom Debbie Phelps looked as though she could barely breathe as she watched the finish.

No need to worry.

"I felt so good coming off the wall," Phelps said. "My kick off the wall felt really, really good. I saw the splash out of my left eye from his lane coming over, and I saw him getting closer and closer, and I heard the crowd getting louder and louder."

Unlike Beijing, where Phelps trailed to the last possible split-second before getting ahead of a gliding Cavic, the American was clearly ahead this time.

He didn’t even hear what Cavic had to say when it was over. The Serbian hung on the lane rope, as if wanting to make peace, but Phelps was too busy celebrating.

"I was very, very strong toward the end," Cavic said. "But Michael Phelps is Michael Phelps and he does what he does — and he did."

No doubt about it.

Cavic regrets pre-race trash talk over suits

ROME — Milorad Cavic was satisfied with his tactics after losing to Michael Phelps again Saturday. It was his prerace trash talk that he appeared most sorry about.

After morning heats Friday, Cavic lambasted Phelps for sticking with his Speedo swimsuit, offering to buy his rival one of the new, supposedly faster suits from Arena or Jaked. Cavic intimated that Phelps was compromising his chances of winning to maintain his lucrative contract with his sponsor.

"When I race Michael Phelps, I want him at his best. Because only when he’s at his best could I ever feel like I’ve gotten the race I wanted," said Cavic, who wears Arena. "Of course, winning is pretty important to me. But I want the atmosphere, I want the experience to be everything that it was tonight.

There are no regrets. I did my best. He did something huge — huge," Cavic said. "My only regret is I let the media make what it makes of it all."

In almost an exact replay of last year’s Beijing Olympics, Phelps beat Cavic with a furious finish in the 100-meter butterfly, breaking the world record set by the Serb in Friday night’s semifinals.

Phelps clocked 49.82 seconds, Cavic touched in 49.95 and Rafael Munoz of Spain was third in 50.41.

Cavic was nearly seven-tenths ahead of Phelps at the 50-meter mark, but he couldn’t hold on to the lead on the second lap.

"It was an incredible race. We all went a lot faster than we expected," Cavic said. "Tactically, I didn’t do anything wrong. I think I had a much better finish than usual. ... But I knew that if I was going to win this race, I needed a big enough lead in front of Michael, and at the 50-meter mark I turned and saw that he was much closer than I would have expected.

"Given that he was so close to me at the 50-meter mark, I was very, very strong toward the end," he added. "But Michael Phelps is Michael Phelps and he does what he does and he did."

At last year’s Beijing Olympics, Cavic came closer to beating Phelps than anyone else.

The American-born Serb lost by a mere hundredth of a second, a finish so close that the Serbs filed a protest and swimming’s governing body had to review the tape down to the 10-thousandth of a second.

After the Olympics, Cavic ended a seven-year run of working with coach Mike Bottom in California, deciding he wanted to move to Serbia. But the roof of his training pool in Serbia caved in and he ended up training with Italian coach Andrea Di Nino in San Marino.

In a gesture toward his coach — and perhaps in a move to win over the crowd — Cavic waved a banner for the local football team, AS Roma, when he was introduced before the race.

"It was a gift to me," Di Nino said. "I’m from Rome and I’m a Roma fan."

While the 100 fly didn’t plan out as he hoped, Cavic will still leave Rome with his first gold medal at a world championship. On Monday, Cavic won the 50 fly, a non-Olympic event that Phelps does not swim.

"He’s happy. He got one gold and one silver medal, but he still wants to improve," Di Nino said. "And it’s just between him and Phelps. Munoz was six-tenths behind.

"It was a great race, between two champions," the coach added. "Michael Phelps is the Michael Jordan of swimming. Losing to Michael Phelps is an honor, and Phelps knows he can’t rest on his laurels in the coming years. Cavic is right there."

But Cavic might not get the chance to race Phelps again until the 2011 worlds in Shanghai. Di Nino doesn’t want to wait that long.

"We’re ready. It’s Phelps that doesn’t race during the season. Cavic races World Cup. But it’s like boxing — whoever has the title decides on the rematch," Di Nino said. "We hope it’s before Shanghai."

-- Andrew Dampf

FINA announces scientific commission for suits

ROME — Swimming’s governing body has announced the five members of the scientific commission that will oversee approvals for swimsuits.

FINA said Saturday the commission will be led by Jan-Anders Manson of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

The other members include David Pendergast of the State University of New York in Buffalo, Brian Blanksby of the University of Western Australia and Shigahiro Takahashi of Chukyo University in Japan.

Retired swimmer Rafael Escalas of Spain, president of swimwear manufacturer AgonSwim, is the athletes’ representative.

On Friday, FINA set a firm date of Jan. 1 for banning polyurethane bodysuits.

Besides approval, the commission will also monitor developments in suit technology.

Pope meets swimming worlds athletes

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday met athletes participating in the swimming world championships in Rome and urged them to act as role models for fellow youths "in sports and in life."

Benedict blessed and shook hands with athletes in the courtyard of his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo in the hills outside Rome, and praised their "exciting performance."

He playfully put on sports hats the athletes gave him and triumphantly raised a plush green frog — the mascot of the Rome championships.

Among those handing the gifts to Benedict were fellow German Paul Biedermann, who beat American Michael Phelps in the 200-meter freestyle on Tuesday, and Italy’s double gold medallist Federica Pellegrini. The two also gave Benedict an Italy and a Germany jersey, and Biedermann’s was autographed by his teammates.

Though Phelps was invited, he skipped the audience to rest before his final individual race of the world championships later Saturday.

Benedict blessed the crowd of about 100 athletes, organizers and volunteers using his right hand, encased in a cast since he fell and broke his wrist two weeks ago while vacationing in the Italian Alps.

In a speech, he praised the athletes for choosing to train hard and make sacrifices to succeed in sports.

"With your competitions you offer to the world an exciting performance of discipline and humanity, artistic beauty and tenacious will," Benedict said. "You, dear athletes, are models for your fellow youths and your example can be decisive in positively building their future. Therefore, be champions in sports and in life!"

Benedict also worked an apt sports pun into his speech, telling the athletes: "I hope that you will ‘swim’ toward ever higher, unmatchable ideals."

-- Ariel David

U.S. loses to Croatia 8-6 in bronze medal match

ROME — Serbia won a dramatic shootout at the world championships, claiming the gold medal in men’s water polo 14-13 over Spain on Saturday night.

Xavier Garcia scored for Spain with 11 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 6. Spain’s Guillermo Molina and Serbia’s Nikola Radjen matched goals in extra time to make it 7-7. Then it was on to the penalty shootout, which required extra time as well.

The teams were still tied, 10-10, after five shots apiece, and it took four more rounds before Serbian goalie Slobodan Soro blocked a low shot by Blai Mallarach, and Milan Aleksic won it by rifling one past the right arm of Spanish netminder Inaki Aguilar.

"This is a great victory for us," said Vanja Udovicic, who led Serbia with five goals. "It means a lot because we are back on top of the world."

Earlier, Croatia, the 2007 world champion, salvaged a bronze by defeating the United States 8-6.

The Serbian fans set off flares in the stands as the players and coaches hopped in the pool to celebrate after Aleksic won the country’s first title since 2005, when it was still aligned with Montenegro. Both countries were once part of Yugoslavia, which won back-to-back titles in 1986 and 1991 before splitting up.

Spain lost despite getting seven goals from Garcia.

"I cannot think of something that we did wrong tonight," Spain coach Rafael Aguilar said. "We did everything very well. We made a very big effort. My players couldn’t do more than this."

Serbia’s Filip Filipovic scored four times.

The Serbians bounced back after losing to Spain 18-17 on penalties for the bronze medal match at Melbourne two years ago, then falling 11-9 in the opening game of this tournament.

"This victory over them is good revenge," Serbia coach Dejan Udovicic said. "We are world champions!"

Paulo Obradovic and Samir Barac scored two goals apiece for Croatia in the bronze medal game. Obradovic broke a 5-all tie with 4:54 remaining, and Igor Hinic’s goal with 27 seconds left wrapped up third place. Josip Pavic made 11 saves for the winners.

Anthony Azevedo scored twice for the Americans, silver medalists at the Beijing Olympics.

The U.S. women won the gold medal Friday with a win over Canada.

-- Paul Newberry

Olympics

Notebook: U.S. gymnast bounces back from Beijing injury

Samantha Peszek’s "time off" after the Beijing Olympics was no vacation.

The gymnast had to let her badly sprained ankle heal. She needed knee surgery. When she was finally healthy, she had to work back into shape. Oh, throw in finding a new gym, too.

"It’s definitely been hard, hard work," Peszek said. "It seemed forever to me to not be training and not be working. It was maybe three, four months, but it seemed like forever. It was a lot of hard work, so I’m really proud of where I am right now."

Like Olympic champion Nastia Liukin, Peszek competed for the first time since Beijing last weekend. The results were mixed — she finished second on vault, but struggled on balance beam with a fall, a wobble and a shaky dismount — but the meet was more about getting back out there than anything else.

Her real targets are the national championships, Aug. 12-15 in Dallas, and the world championships in October.

"I feel like there’s some unfinished business," she said.

Peszek was expected to be a key part of the U.S. team in Beijing, a rock-steady competitor who could put up solid scores in all four events, floor and vault in particular. But as the Americans were finishing their warmups in the training gym before prelims, Peszek sprained her left ankle.

She was only able to do uneven bars in preliminaries. All those years of training, and she could do little more than watch as the U.S. women won the silver medal.

"I was crushed," Peszek said. "To pretend everything is normal when you walk out on the floor and still be there and support my teammates, it was really hard for me. But I just had to remember it wasn’t about me, it was about the U.S. team. I felt so bad, I felt like I was letting them down."

With two years of high school left — she’s already committed to UCLA for the fall of 2010 — Peszek decided to continue elite gymnastics. First, though, she had to get healthy.

And with longtime coach Peter Zhao returning to his native China, she had to find a place to train. She didn’t have to look far. Fellow Olympian Bridget Sloan is also an Indianapolis native, so Peszek now trains with her and her longtime coach, Marvin Sharp.

Peszek was still rehabbing when she switched gyms, so she and Sharp really did start from scratch. But she’s pleased with the progress, and is confident she’ll be even further along when it really matters.

"I definitely have a lot of work cut out for me," said Peszek, who probably won’t do bars at nationals because of a torn labrum. "I know exactly what I need to do."

SOCCER DEBATE

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is under no deadline to solve the dilemma of eligibility for men’s soccer in the Olympics. Still, he’d like to find a solution quickly.

The FIFA congress in June discussed the matter, but the executive committee has made no decision on whether to change the age limit for the games. Blatter has always expressed concern that the Olympics should not challenge the World Cup for prestige, thus the use of under-23 men’s teams; there are no age restrictions for women.

Each nation can add three overage players to its Olympic roster.

But many soccer clubs, particularly the most influential ones such as Champions League winner FC Barcelona, are pushing for under-21 squads.

"It’s a touchy subject," Blatter admitted. "The IOC is not happy with us if we diminish the quality of the competition.

"There are two moves that can be made. One is to maintain the status quo of the under-23 and three additions of overage players. The other, there is a big move from the clubs and international union that they only want 21-and-under players in the Olympics. They say it is too difficult to release the players during the season. The Olympics are not in the international calendar."

Indeed, the London Games won’t even interfere with the opening of domestic league seasons because they end on Aug. 12, 2012.

LAMBIEL RETURNS

Vancouver is proving to be quite the draw for figure skating medalists from the Turin Olympics.

Stephane Lambiel, the 2006 men’s silver medalist, joined Evgeni Plushenko (gold, men), Sasha Cohen (silver, women) and Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (bronze, pairs) in making a comeback for Vancouver. Lambiel retired from competitive skating in October 2008 because of a lingering adductor muscle injury that was limiting his training, but said the pain is now "manageable."

"I feel really good, both physically and mentally, and I am determined, downright eager, to take on the Olympic challenge and score a top result in Vancouver," the two-time world champion from Switzerland said.

First he has to get there.

Swiss skaters didn’t finish high enough at the last world championships to earn any of the 24 spots available for the 30-man field in Vancouver. For Switzerland to get one of the remaining spots, Lambiel — or another Swiss skater — will have to finish in the top six at the Nebelhorn Trophy, Sept. 22-26 in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Swiss rules also require Lambiel to score 195 points or better in two competitions. Though he is not entered in any Grand Prix events, Lambiel plans to do the Japan Open in October and the European championships in January.

Lambiel routinely scored 200 points or better, with a personal best of 239.10 at the 2008 Grand Prix final.

STREAK CONTINUES

With Olympic gold already in hand, Brazil’s women’s volleyball team is eyeing the world title.

Brazil and Peru became the latest teams to qualify for next year’s world championships with their semifinal victories in last weekend’s third-round tournament. Brazil then beat Peru 3-0 to clinch the tournament crown, its sixth straight.

Brazil has won every tournament it played dating back to July 13, 2008, including the gold medal at the Beijing Games.

"It will be the toughest world championship ever, as the tournament will have more teams than previous editions," Brazil coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes said. "Eight strong teams from Europe have already qualified. But I am sure we have what it takes to be in the gold-medal match."

Worlds are Oct. 29-Nov. 14, 2010, in Japan. The other teams qualified are: the United States (silver medalists in Beijing), the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Italy, Serbia, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey, the Netherlands and Algeria. Japan and Russia got byes into worlds.

OLYMPIC RINGS

Katelyn Bouyssou is going to the world championships — all three of them. The 15-year-old, who this spring became the youngest U.S. judo athlete to qualify for the senior world championships, earned a spot on the junior world team last weekend. She also has a spot at the cadet worlds, for 15- and 16-year-old athletes. ... In what could be a preview of the world championships, Olympic silver medal gymnast Kohei Uchimura of Japan beat Germany’s Fabien Hambuechen for the all-around title at the Japan Cup. ... The Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., is the new home for the national BMX Hall of Fame. ... Germany won the junior world title in women’s volleyball, beating the Dominican Republic. Brazil took the bronze medal.

-- Nancy Armour

Sailing

America’s Cup holder shows off Alinghi 5 to Swiss

GENEVA — The holders of the America’s Cup are celebrating Swiss National Day by showing off their new giant catamaran to supporters on Lake Geneva.

Alinghi 5, towering above the lesser craft on the lake, led a boat parade from Lausanne to Geneva, with stops at ports along the way.

The cruise followed Alinghi’s legal victory in New York this week over challenger BMW Oracle Racing of San Francisco, which gave the Swiss team permission to use an engine to trim the sails and move water ballast. BMW Oracle Racing opposed the departure from the tradition of using only wind and manual power in sailing America’s Cup boats.

The races between the two 90-foot multihulls are scheduled to begin Feb. 8. The Alinghi team is to announce the site by Thursday.

Softball

U.S., Japan advance to softball’s Japan Cup final

SENDAI, Japan — The U.S. softball team avenged its loss to Japan.

Stacey Nelson gave up one run and three hits over seven innings Saturday as the United States beat Japan 6-1 in the Japan Cup softball tournament.

The game was a rematch of the gold medal game at the Beijing Olympics, which Japan won 3-1.

Nelson struck out four in a 97-pitch effort as the Americans improved to 3-0 in the preliminary round of the four-nation tournament.

Molly Johnson hit a grand slam in the first inning when the U.S. team scored five runs off starter Tomo Yasufuku.

The U.S. and Japan will face off again in Sunday’s final.