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East Meadow, New York - Michael Phelps triumphed in the highly anticipated 200m freestyle showdown on Saturday as the US stop on the FINA short course World Cup concluded.
American Olympic hero Phelps trailed Italys Filippo Magnini for much of the race, but pulled even at the 150-metre mark before moving ahead in the final stretch. Both men came in under the existing US Open record, with Italian Olympian Massi Rosolino, who won the 400m free on Friday, finishing a distant third.
"After watching Massi this morning I knew he was going to come out quick, and I was next to Magnini at Worlds and I know he has great closing speed," Phelps said. "Those guys are always fast in the finals."
 
Phelps, who had not competed in a national or international meet since last August, also won the 200m individual medley with a time of 1:55.28, completing a sweep of all four events in which he swam this week and setting American records in the 400m IM and the 200m free.
In the mens 100m breaststroke, Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine posted a 58.49 to edge out American Brendan Hansen by just five-hundredths of a second. Lisogor and Hansen also took the top two spots in the 50m breast on Friday.
Lisogor's Ukrainian team-mate Andriy Serdinov won the 100m butterfly in 52.28, ahead of Japan's Kohei Kawamoto.
The FINA World Cup Series will conclude next week with one more stop, February 10-12, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. - Sapa-AFP
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