Freddie Bousquet upstaged Michael Phelps to bring the curtain down on the Charlotte Ultraswim meet in dramatic style.

Phelps, 23, was returning to competition for the first time since his record-breaking eight gold medal-winning haul at last summer's Beijing heroics, albeit delayed by a three-month suspension following the publication of photographs appearing to show him using equipment associated with marijuana use.

He had won the 200m freestyle and the 100m butterfly finals on Friday night and took silver behind world record holder Aaron Peirsol in the 100m backstroke final on Saturday night.

Resuming his search for a third gold medal of the meet at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Centre, Phelps again had to settle for silver as Bousquet took the 100 metres freestyle final, an event the American had not swam in Beijing.

Phelps, 23, had qualified equal fastest with fellow American Ricky Berens in the morning's preliminaries with Frenchman Bousquet, the 50m free world record holder, fourth fastest behind Cullen Jones.

Bousquet, who had won the 50m free the previous night, got off to a strong start in the 100m final 24 hours later and was a full body length ahead of Phelps at the turn, made in a world-record paced 22.83 seconds.

Phelps, the only finalist not in a full body suit, rallied over the final 50m but could not reel in Bousquet who clocked a meet record 48.22 seconds with Phelps second in 49.04.

"I'm not disappointed with my times, but my finishes were awful," Phelps said when asked to reflect on the meet as a whole.

"So there are small things I need to work on but overall it was a pretty good meet.

"I didn't expect some of these times but I'm back on track and from here I head to (the US Olympic training centre at) Colorado Springs for three weeks and I'm looking forward to that."

Marco Loughran of Swim Wales followed his B final victory in the 100m backstroke on Saturday night with an A final appearance in the men's 200m backstroke.

Loughran had qualified second fastest, in 2:02.28, slower only than Tyler Clary (1:59.14) with Peirsol, the event's top seed, third fastest from the heats, swimming well within himself to clock 2:02.48.

Peirsol's prospects for a second gold medal of the meet were enhanced considerably when chief rival Lochte also scratched from those heats.

Peirsol, though, had Clary to deal with, just holding him off to touch in a meet record 1:56.65 as his rival clocked 1:57.05 with Loughran fifth in 2:03.00.

"I'd stay home if they were going to be easy, just do practice," Peirsol said. "I have to go home and work out a bit more but at this time of year it's right on where I need to be going, and I'm very happy with that."

American teenager Dagny Knutson bagged her fourth gold medal of the meet in the women's 200m Individual Medley, cruising to an almost two-second victory over Julia Smit to complete a meet she will not forget. Knutson had announced her arrival on the world having twice beaten Olympic silver medalist Katie Hoff in her strongest events, the 200m and 400m freestyle events, as well as landing the 400m IM.

The 100m freestyle, though, eluded Knutson less than an hour later as Amanda Weir took gold in 54.06 from Christine Magnu (55.27) and Victoria Poon (55.61) with the teenager sixth in 56.10 and Hoff eighth in 56.55.

Durham's Stephanie Proud, swimming for the University of Florida's Gator Swim Club, qualified fastest for Sunday night's women's 200m backstroke final in 2:11.40.

American Mary Descenza was next fastest, clocking 2:13.46 to beat 16-year-old US Olympian Elizabeth Beisel (2:13.90), the event top seed, in their heat. Both Proud and Descenza did not race in the evening session, however, with Beisel taking the victory in 2:11.88.

Tom Allen of Swim Wales took third in the men's 800m freestyle A final in 8:13.02 in a race won by Joe Kinderwater in 8:08.16, while Swansea ITC's Megan Gilchrist finished fifth in the women's 1500m freestyle A final, clocking 16:54.83.

Shoreham's Gemma Spofforth made the 200m backstroke C final in 2:21.15 but did not race but Swim Wales' Lowri Tynan reached the 100m free C final and placed fifth in 58.61 and her team-mate Joseph Canlan-Shaw reached the 200m backstroke C final, finishing second in 2:06.65.