Aaron Peirsol stopped Michael Phelps' winning return by by taking the 100 metres backstroke title at the Charlotte Ultraswim meet.

World record holder Peirsol held off a late challenge from Phelps, who on Friday had won the 200m free and the 100m butterfly at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Centre, to win in 53.32 seconds, 0.47 faster than his Olympic team-mate, with Phelps' North Baltimore team-mate Nick Thoman third in 54.76.

"I'm very happy with that," Peirsol said. "It's a good field, those guys are good and they'll be the ones I'll be going against this summer."

Peirsol also played down the presence of Phelps in the field.

"I wanted to win. He's been 53.0 before but so has Nick (Thoman), so has Ryan (Lochte, fourth).

"Michael wasn't the only guy."

Phelps had chosen to race just one final last night having qualified for both the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle as he continued his comeback following a three-month suspension.

Phelps' return to competition following his record eight gold-medal hauls at the Beijing Olympics last August had been delayed by the ban imposed by USA Swimming after pictures of him with equipment for using marijuana were published in the News of the World.

Phelps had lost out to Peirsol in the morning's heats, the five-time Olympic gold medalist clocking 55.56 seconds in his specialist event to Phelps's 55.61.

"That was a decent time for me," a cheerful Phelps said, "I'm fine with it.

"Aaron and I were always going to have that race going on out there and he usually has the upper hand. It's good racing."

Former European junior champion Marco Loughran from Swim Wales had placed fifth in Phelps' heat with a time of 58.25 and then returned to win the B final in 56.62 while team-mate Joseph Canlan-Shaw clocked 59.06 in the heats.

Phelps had also swam the 50m free, looking comfortable in second place, clocking 23.24 seconds with a new windmill stroke rather than his normal bent arm style, finishing behind heat winner Jared White to reach the Saturday night final as the eighth and final qualifier.

Phelps, though, decided to scratch from the final to concentrate on the backstroke decider.

Phelps' Beijing team-mate Cullen Jones had won the previous heat in 22.27, while 50m freestyle world record holder Frederick Bousquet of France was edged out in his heat by Trinidad and Tobago's George Bovell. Bousquet clocked 22.37 with Bovell setting a meet record in 21.88.

The Frenchman had the last laugh, however, leading from wire to wire to hold off Jones in 21.33 with the American second in 21.92 and Bovell third in 22.01.

Swim Wales teenager Rob Holderness took third place in the men's 200m breaststroke final, clocking 2:16.20 behind comfortable race winner Eric Shanteau of the United States, who set a meet record 2:09.71 and Mark Gangloff in second (2:14.22).

Swim Wales's Jemma Lowe, sixth in the 100m fly final in Beijng, took sixth place in Saturday night's 200m fly final. The 19-year-old, still needing to qualify for this summer's world championships in Rome at next month's trials in Glasgow, clocked 2:14.65 in her heat, fourth fastest overall, and went faster in the final, 2:14.40, as Mary Descenza won in 2:09.25.

Portsmouth Northsea's Gemma Spofforth reached the B final in the 100m backstroke, the event she finished fourth in at Beijing. After turning in front, the European record holder faded to clock 1:04.09 for fifth place with Swim Wales's Jennifer Oldham seventh in 1:04.92.