Shanghai – Cesar Cielo on Friday topped the heats in the men's 50m freestyle at the world swimming championships in Shanghai.
The Brazilian, who earlier in the week won the gold medal in the 50m butterfly – less than a week after being cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to compete in the championships after testing positive for a banned substance – won his heat in 22.03 seconds.
Cielo, who is the defending champion and world record holder over the distance, shared the fastest time with US swimmer Nathan Adrian and George Bovell from Trinidad.
In the men's 100m butterfly US superstar Michael Phelps, who on Thursday was beaten for the second time in a final at these championships by Ryan Lochte, who took gold in the 200m individual medley, easily advanced to the semifinals.
Phelps, who is both defending champion and record holder, swam a 51.95 for the fifth-fastest time. His compatriot Tyler McGill recorded the fastest time in 51.76, followed by Takuro Fujii from Japan and Australian veteran Geoff Huegill.
Croatian Milorad Cavic, who has led a fierce rivalry with Phelps over the distance in recent competitions, was eliminated in the heats, after recording the 18th-fastest time.
There was a Scandinavian double in the heats of the 50m butterfly, where Sweden's Therese Alshammar had the fastest time in 25.68 – 0.2 seconds faster than Jeanette Ottesen from Denmark.
The United States' Dana Vollmer and China's Lu Ying recorded the third and fourth-fastest time respectively.
Melissa Franklin, who on Thursday won a gold medal with the US women's 4x200m freestyle relay team, had the fastest time in the women's 200m backstroke.
The 16-year-old, who is considered the rising star in the national team, recorded 2 minutes 7.71 seconds, followed by Ukrainian Daryna Zevina, who was 0.64 seconds behind.
The third-fastest time belonged to Elizabeth Beisel from the US, with Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, who won the title in Rome two years ago and is also the world record holder, advancing to Friday evening's semifinals with the seventh-fastest time.
The US men's 4x200m freestyle relay showed they will be the team to beat as they qualified for Friday's final with the fastest time. Their 7:08.84 was 1.62 seconds faster than Japan and 2.76 faster than France.
Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington had the fastest time in the women's 800m freestyle event, beating Denmark's Lotte Friis, who was swimming in the same heat, by 0.8 seconds.
Adlington recorded a time of 8:22.27, while the defending champion Friis swam a 8:23.07. Americans Chloe Sutton and Kate Ziegler had the third and fourth-fastest times.
Friday's evening session in the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai was to see the finals of the women's 100m freestyle and 200m breaststroke, as well as the men's 200m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 4x200m freestyle relay. – Sapa-dpa