Phelps’ threat to top Hackett

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AMERICAN superstar Michael Phelps believes he has the weapons at his disposal to upset Grant Hackett for the 400m freestyle crown at the world championships in Montreal in July.

Despite Olympic champion Ian Thorpe’s absence, this is likely to be the race of the championships as two of the stars of the sport face off for the first time in this event.

“It’s definitely going to be fast and exciting – almost like the 200m last summer (the “race of the century” between Thorpe, Phelps and Pieter van den Hoogenband at the Athens Olympics),” Phelps said.

“He’s swum and done that event for a long time so that’s going to be a challenge for me. It’s going to be a fast race and I guess it will take 3:42-3:43 to win it.”

Phelps’s best time is 3min46sec but he has no doubt that he can bridge the gap to Olympic silver medallist Hackett, who has a best time of 3:42.51.

“I think one of the things that has helped me this year has been the training group I have had (at Club Wolverine at the University of Michigan),” Phelps said. “For the first time, I have been swimming with freestylers everyday, every stroke and every lap. It’s a change and it’s a good change. I think that will definitely improve my freestyle.”

One of those freestylers, Klete Keller, took the bronze medal behind Thorpe and Hackett in the Athens 400m freestyle and stepped up to deny Australia the 4×200m freestyle gold medal by holding off Thorpe on the final leg.

Phelps, 19, moved from Baltimore to Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his coach Bob Bowman after winning six gold medals at the Olympics last year.

They have chosen to take on a freestyle-dominated competition program this year, including the 100m, 200m and 400m, as well as the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

The 200m freestyle was the only individual event Phelps contested at the Olympics that he did not win, but he seems certain to claim that title in Montreal in the absence of Thorpe and van den Hoogenband, who announced on Friday he would skip the titles because of a recent hernia operation.

Phelps acknowledged the event would lose some excitement without the two men but said he would “still try and swim it as fast as I can”.

“The excitement level for the fans will be a little bit lower because Thorpe and van den Hoogenband are the two fastest ever in that event,” he conceded.

“But for me, an event is an event, it’s an opportunity to get in the water and race.”