Phelps swimming as new underdog

MONTREAL — One week into the world championships, it's finally time to go swimming.

And what a way to get things started today: Michael Phelps vs. Grant Hackett, a showdown at 400 meters that has Phelps in the unusual role of underdog.

Phelps, who won six golds and eight medals overall at the Athens Olympics, wanted to take his remarkable repertoire in a new direction at these championships. So he set his sights on the 400 freestyle — one of the Australian star's signature events.

"I'm looking forward to it," Phelps said. "It's going to be a fun race, exciting."

With world record holder Ian Thorpe sitting out the worlds and Phelps a relative neophyte in the 400 free, Hackett is a clear favorite to win at this distance.

His entry time is nearly three seconds faster than anyone else in the field — and almost 4 1/2 seconds ahead of Phelps. But the 20-year-old American is eager to see how he stacks up against Hackett.

"Hackett has been very dominant in the middle distance freestyle events the past few years," Phelps said. "It's my job to step up and try to race him, go after it and see what happens. That's one of the races I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully, we can get the ball rolling for the U.S."

Three other swimming finals will be held Sunday night — the women's 400 free, along with the 400 free relays for both men and women.

Eighteen-year-old Laure Manaudou of France is a huge favorite in the 400 free, looking to add to the gold medal she won in Athens last summer.

As for the relays, the Australian women look unbeatable. Jodie Henry, Alice Mills and Libby Lenton have three of the four fastest 100 times in history and should be able to hold off their biggest rivals, Natalie Coughlin and the Americans.

The U.S. men don't face such daunting opposition in their relay.

The South Africans, who won gold in Athens with a world-record performance, decided not to enter the world championships because their team hasn't been close to matching the form it showed last summer. Instead of an embarrassing letdown, they decided to let Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman compete for individual medals.

The Netherlands comes into the championships with the top entry time, just ahead of the Americans, but the Dutch don't have their best swimmer. World record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband is skipping Montreal to recover from a hernia operation.