Target Missed But Peirsol Presses the Point | Swim News Online

Faster than Melbourne 2007, 0.12sec shy of Michael Phelps over in Indy and not quite fast enough to snatch back the 200m backstroke crown from fellow America Ryan Lochte, Aaron Peirsol provided the highlight of the second day at the Paris Open with a stormy 1:54.77 victory ahead of the only man on the same chart, Austrian Markus Rogan, on 1:55.74.

The second session of finals also saw Sweden's Stefan Nystrand dive deeper into the sub 22sec club, with a 21.93sec win over 50m freestyle, 0.04sec inside the Swedish record he established at the world championships, and a 53.80sec victory for German Britta Steffen over 100m freestyle, 0.5sec shy of her world record.

If Peirsol missed Lochte's standard by 0.45sec, Rogan missed Arkady Vyatchanin's European record by 0.30sec, the Russian taking third here tonight in 1:58.04.

By his own assessment, Peirsol's was a great swim. Thrilling to watch, the fatigue the top two men felt tangible only in the closing 10 metres of the race.

Peirsol had not yet seen his splits when he judged correctly where the target had slipped away: "I imagine I was out a little too slow." Indeed, he was 0.51sec down on Lochte's pace at 100m, and 0.71sec down on his own half-way pace back in March.

-Craig Lord