Janet Evans' comeback bid at age 40 got serious Friday as she qualified for Olympic trials, while also receiving a reminder of how far she remains off the pace. In her first elite-level competition since coming out of retirement, the former United States gold medalist and world record holder qualified in the 400-meter freestyle at the Austin Grand Prix. Evans qualified for the trials by winning her preliminary heat with a time of 4 minutes, 17.27 seconds, easily beating the qualifying standard of 4:19.39. Evans was 17 when she set the world record in the 400, one of three gold medals she won at the 1988 Seoul Games, and later set world marks in the 800 and 1,500 freestyle. Evans retired after a disappointing effort in the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she failed to qualify for the 400 freestyle and finished sixth in the 800. The Olympic trials start in June and the London Games start in July. Since announcing her comeback last year, Evans had competed only in Masters' level meets and dominated those races. The married mother of two couldn't swim in a Grand Prix-level event until she had been in the United States Anti-Doping Agency testing program for a year. In other races Friday night, 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps won the men's 100 butterfly in 52.4 seconds. A subpar preliminary in the morning left him in the consolation final of the 100 freestyle, which he won in 49.14. Ryan Lochte finished seventh in the 100 freestyle consolation final in his only head-to-head matchup with Phelps, and finished fourth in the consolation final of the 400 freestyle. Thorpe finishes 5th Five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe finished fifth in the 200-meter freestyle at the Victorian state championships Saturday, his best result since coming out of a five-year retirement in a bid to swim at the London Games. The 29-year-old Australian improved marginally on his morning heat time, finishing in 1 minute, 50.79 seconds, about 2.5 seconds behind winner Jarrod Killey. Thorpe's old world record in the distance and his personal best was 1:44.06 set in 2001, a mark which stood for nearly six years. On Friday, Thorpe missed the 100-meter freestyle final after finishing with the 13th-best time in the heats.
