<div><p>Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps pulled out of the 100m freestyle at America's World Championship trials on Friday with a sore neck.</p><p>Phelps said he received treatment, but "when I hopped in the water and could literally barely turn my head to breathe, we thought it was better not to risk anything the next two weeks."</p><p>Phelps had already booked three World Championship events, in the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly and the 100m butterfly.</p><p>He said he actually woke with a stiff neck on Thursday, but swam through it to seize the 100m butterfly world record with a time of 50.22sec on Thursday night.</p><p>While much attention has been focused on his bid to revamp his freestyle stroke to challenge the world's best in the 100m free, he admitted the decision to withdraw was made easier by the knowledge that he wouldn't have swum the event in Rome.</p><p>"To be quite frank, Michael was not going to swim the 100m free in Rome because it conflicts with the 200m fly, and the 200m fly is going so well," Phelps's coach, Bob Bowman, said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=54611607&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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