He finished second to fellow countryman and bitter rival Ryan Lochte in the 100 metres butterfly final, with a time of 52.13sec, before finishing 42nd over 50m freestyle, which is not among his usual events.

Following that, Phelps claimed he had not decided whether to make his comeback permanent, and insisted he remains a long way from deciding whether he will continue or not.

Michael Phelps has spoken about continuing for a final Olympic medal bid at Rio 2016
©Getty Images




But longstanding coach Bob Bowman has confirmed to the Associated Press that he will compete in two events in North Carolina on May 16, the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle.

Bowman confirmed this will mark a continuation of his plan to build up Phelps' endurance while staying away, at least for now, from the gruelling, multi-day programmes that were once customary for the American.

He is entered for morning preliminaries and evening finals, although Bowman said he is not certain Phelps will actually compete in both races.

After the Charlotte meet, Phelps will head to Colorado for high-altitude training beginning May 27. while he has also put his name in for the final Grand Prix meet of the season in Santa Clara, California, from June 19 to 22.

Despite all of this Bowman reiterated how Phelps is not yet committing to specific long-term goals, such as Rio 2016, despite this being the obvious focal point for his comeback.

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