SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Swimming fans' hopes of another classic showdown between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic were dashed on Friday when the Serbian failed to qualify for the 100 meters butterfly semi-finals at the world championships in Shanghai.
While world and Olympic champion Phelps qualified fifth fastest with a time of 51.95 seconds, Cavic struggled to 52.67, leaving him 18th overall and out of contention.
"Nothing to say. Nothing to comment on," American Phelps said when asked about Cavic's failure. "I think I will be the first one to say we all have our ups and downs with competitions.
"He is the kind of guy who is gonna be there. We had good races in the past and I am sure we will have another one again."
Cavic was pipped for Olympic gold by Phelps in Beijing when the American, realizing he was too far away from the finish to glide into the wall, took an extra stroke and slammed into the touch pads to beat the Serb by 0.01 seconds.
The victory was Phelps's seventh gold in Beijing, equaling Mark Spitz's record, before he won his unmatched eighth in the 4x100 medley relay.
Cavic also improved on his record in that race, clocking 49.95, but has since struggled to scale those heights and failed to qualify for the 50 butterfly final earlier in the week in Shanghai.
"HIDING"
In the men's 50 freestyle, world and Olympic champion Cesar Cielo of Brazil, Nathan Adrian of the United States and George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago, all clocked 22.03 seconds to be the fastest qualifiers for the semi-finals.
World record holder Therese Alshammer qualified fastest for the women's 50 butterfly semi-finals, while Melissa Franklin of the United States was comfortably the quickest in the women's 200 backstroke.
Olympic and 2009 world champion Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe also qualified as seventh fastest, but Russian Anastasia Zueva, who earlier won gold in the 50 backstroke and silver in the 100 here in Shanghai, failed to advance.
The United States were the fastest qualifiers for the final of the men's 4x200 freestyle relay later on Friday and will go into the race as hot favourites with Ryan Lochte and Phelps -- the gold and silver medalists in the 200 freestyle in Shanghai -- expected to come into their final quartet.
(Additional reporting by Soo Ai Peng; Editing by Ian Ransom)