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Warrender's Lewis Smith faced up to the world's best swimmer Michael Phelps during finals action at the Missouri Grand Prix Meet in America this morning.  Smith was racing in the 'A' final of the men's 400 I.M. and it was no surprise that despite his best efforts, he had to give way to the dominance that is Michael Phelps whenever he competes.  Phelps won the race with 4:14, the fastest time in the world this year, while Smith looked strong throughout, racing hard against some other big names before eventualy finishing 5th in 4:24.10, his best performance since racing at the end of a taper last August.  Brazilian Thiago Pereira grabbed silver in 4:18 with World silver medalist Ryan Lochte third in 4:22.  Billy Purnell swam in the 'C' final and made a six second drop on his heat time to place 3rd in 4:34.52.

At the end of the morning finals session, Smith teamed up with fellow Warrender swimmer Ewan Johnston, plus Scottish colleagues Stuart Houston and Robbie Renwick for the 4 x 200 Freestyle relay.  Smith led the team off and established a small lead over the field while narrowly missing his PB with a good swim of 1:54.64.  The lead grew as Houston followed in 1:55.24 with Johnston swimming the third leg in 1:54.93, before Renwick anchored home (1:54.48) to what was actually a comfortable victory in 7:39.29.  As a bonus to the win, it was announced that their winning time was a new pool and meet record.

The evening session on Day 3 saw the final set of heats.  Smith, Johnston and Purnell were all back in action with two swims each.  Smith (57.40) and Johnston (58.33) swam strong aggressive races in the men's 100m butterfly, both establishing lifetime best performances.  Purnell followed this up with a 59.12 swim in the 100m backstroke securing a 'C' final swim tomorrow morning.  All three boys then tackled the 200m I.M. and with all three progressing to second swims it concluded a good night for the team.  Smith will go in tomorrow's 'A' final after a 2:06.35 swim placed him 7th overall.  Purnell made it through to the 'B' final in 2:09.69, while Johnston secured a 'C' final spot in 2:10.24.

There was excitement, and surprise in other heats when Natalie Coughlin lowered her own World Record in the women's 100m backstroke to 59.21.  Coughlin looked genuinely shocked with the time which came just after Kirsty Coventry almost took the record in the prior heat with 59.61, ultimately missing it by 0.17.  More fast swimming is promised when the meet concludes Monday morning.