Phelps flounders early on first day

MONTREAL -- Michael Phelps stood at the edge of the pool deck, cheering on his teammates and happily thrusting both arms in the air when the Americans finished off a dominating victory.

Quite a change from his mood a few hours earlier.

On a stunning day for the world's best swimmer, Phelps was a flop in the morning -- he couldn't even get past the preliminaries -- but a winner again by Sunday evening.

"I'm happier tonight than I was this morning," Phelps said as the sun set on the first day of swimming at the world championships.

Phelps led off the U.S. victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay, sharing the podium with Neil Walker, Nate Dusing and Jason Lezak. They set a meet record with a time of 3 minutes, 13.77 seconds, beating runner-up Canada by nearly three seconds. Australia took the bronze.

The relay victory put Phelps in a much better frame of mind after his performance in the 400 free. He entered the event hoping to challenge Australian star Grant Hackett and get started on matching that six-gold, eight-medal haul from the Athens Olympics.

Instead, Phelps didn't even get past the preliminaries -- the first time that's happened in five years, according to his coach. He faded badly after the last flip to wind up next-to-last in his heat and 18th overall.

Hackett went on to an easy victory in the final, snapping a streak of runner-up finishes that included the last three world championships and the 2004 Athens Olympics.

In the relay, Phelps got off to one of his typically slow starts, touching fifth at the 50-meter mark. But he had the Americans out front by the time he passed off the pool to Walker.

From there, it was no contest. The Americans broke the mark set by the Russians (3:14.06) at the championships two years ago, just missed the world record held by the South Africans and won their first world championship in the event since 1998.

"Our next big goal is to break the world record," Phelps said. "It's great for us to get this race back."

Other winners on the first night of swimming: Australia in the women's 400 free relay and France's Laure Manaudou in the women's 400 free.

Manaudou, the defending Olympic champion, nearly pulled a Phelps, claiming the last spot in the final with the eighth-fastest time in the prelims.

She then swam nearly five seconds better in the evening to take the gold in 4:06.44, holding off Japan's hard-charging Ai Shibata. Great Britain's Caitlin McClatchey was third.

"Well, I definitely feel better than this morning," Manaudou said, sounding just like Phelps. "My coach said things to motivate me. He told me I was the best and that no one could beat me."

The morning swim is supposed to be a formality for someone of Phelps' caliber, but he wasn't even close to advancing. He was nearly six seconds behind Hackett and trailed the last of eight qualifiers by more than 1 1/2 seconds.

Bowman blamed a lack of experience for Phelps' dismal performance. He added the 400 and 100 free for this meet, dropping two events in which he holds the world record.

"He really doesn't have a good feel of how to swim it properly," Bowman said. "When he moved on those guys this morning, they didn't back down. I think he was confused."

With Phelps out of the way and countryman Ian Thorpe skipping the meet, Hackett coasted to the first swimming gold of the championships with a wire-to-wire victory.

His relief was apparent when he popped from the water, spotted his winning time of 3:42.91 and defiantly shot his right fist skyward. Hackett finished second to Thorpe at the last three championships and in Athens.

Russia's Yuri Prilukov took second, followed by Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli. The lone American, Peter Vanderkaay, was sixth.

"Obviously, it's a shame Michael wasn't here today," Hackett said.

Not that he felt too bad about it.

"He was in the race," the Aussie said. "He just didn't make the finals."

Now, the most medals Phelps can win in Montreal is seven, which would still match his breakthrough performance at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona. But he's got a long way to go before he can realistically challenge Hackett in the 400.

The 20-year-old American looked fine most of the way, his long arms pulling him along at a comfortable pace, his large feet flapping in the water.

But only one other swimmer in the heat was slower over the last 50 meters. Phelps finished in 3:50.53.

"I was shocked when they came off the wall and left him," Bowman said.

World-record holder Australia won the women's 400 free relay in 3:37.32, using a star-studded lineup that included Jodie Mills, Alice Mills, Libby Lenton and Shayne Reese.

Germany took silver and the Americans settled for bronze after five-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin put them out front from the leadoff spot.

"I was getting nervous," said Lenton, who swam anchor for the Australians. "You have more pressure on you coming home."

South Africa's Roland Schoeman set the first world record of the meet in the semifinals of the 50 butterfly -- a non-Olympic event. His time of 23.01 beat the mark of 23.30 set last year by American Ian Crocker, who was second-fastest in the semis.

The 100 breaststroke is shaping up as another showdown between world-record holder Brendan Hansen of the United States and Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, who beat Hansen for the gold medal in Athens.

Kitajima set a meet record in the prelims, but Hansen was fastest in the evening semifinals.

Looking ahead to Monday night's final, Kitajima said, "I need to break the world record to win the race."