Phelps gains sweep at Canada Cup meet

Michael Phelps won the 100-meter freestyle yesterday at the Canada Cup competition in Montreal to sweep both events he entered.

His time of 48.65 seconds improved on the 48.87 he swam one week earlier, when he finished second to Brent Hayden of Canada in Santa Clara, Calif.

The 14-time Olympic gold medalist swam a personal best of 50.48 in winning the 100 butterfly Saturday.

"I'm sort of everywhere where I want to be, except in the 100 free," Phelps said. "I want to be faster in that."

The meet was Phelps' final tune-up for the U.S. nationals, which take place July 7 to July 11 in Indianapolis.

Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress spoke to the Minneapolis radio station KFAN-AM on Friday about the continuing saga surrounding the team and Brett Favre.

The coach said the 39-year-old retired quarterback was "pain free" after having shoulder surgery in May but still needed work.

"Does he have the endurance and the stamina in that arm yet? He doesn't know that yet," Childress said.

"It's no different than grabbing a golf club for the first time during the year, when you rip 18 holes around and you wake up the next day and your side hurts," the coach said. "You say, 'Geez, I haven't felt that muscle in a while.'

"So he's got to build some endurance in that and see if he thinks he can get it back to where he wants to get it to."

Favre has said the only team he has spoken to is the Vikings, who would be a perfect fit because he is familiar with the offense.

"I know that he's not going to play this year unless he can do it exactly the way he has done it in the past," Childress said.

"It's folly to think all of a sudden, well, 'I will play the way Marc Bulger does or I'll play the way Kurt Warner does,' " the coach said. "He's going to play the way Brett Favre plays, and he's the one who is going to know if he has full control of his faculties or not."

Vancouver Canucks center Mats Sundin says he will not play for Sweden, the defending champion, at the Vancouver Olympics in February.

"There will be no Olympics in Vancouver for me next year," Sundin said in a story on the Web site of the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Sundin, 38, who played for the Canucks last season after spending most of his NHL career with Toronto, was one of Sweden's key players at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

Sundin is pondering his future in the NHL and did not rule out playing another season with Vancouver.

The University of Texas and LSU will open the best-of-three finals of the College World Series tonight at 7 in Omaha, Neb.

The two teams have taken different paths to the final series. Louisiana State (54-16) has trailed for a total of a half-inning in its games in Omaha, while Texas (49-14-1) has led after only 11 of 27 innings.

Texas' Chance Ruffin (10-2) will start on the mound against LSU's Louis Coleman (14-2).

Fabian Cancellara won the Tour of Switzerland after a convincing victory in the final stage. He is the first Swiss rider to win the race since 2002.