MONTREAL – Michael Phelps stood at the edge of the pool deck, cheering on his teammates and happily thrusting both arms in the air when the Americans finished off a dominating victory.

Quite a change from his mood a few hours earlier.

On a stunning day for the world’s best swimmer, Phelps was a flop in the morning – he couldn’t even get past the preliminaries – but a winner again by Sunday evening.

“I’m happier tonight than I was this morning,” Phelps said as the sun set on the first day of swimming at the world championships.

Phelps led off the U.S. victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay, sharing the podium with Neil Walker, Nate Dusing and Jason Lezak. They set a meet record with a time of 3 minutes, 13.77 seconds, beating runner-up Canada by nearly three seconds. Australia took the bronze.

The relay victory put Phelps in a much better frame of mind after his performance in the 400 free. He entered the event hoping to challenge Australian star Grant Hackett and get started on matching that six-gold, eight-medal haul from the Athens Olympics.

Instead, Phelps didn’t even get past the preliminaries – the first time that’s happened in five years, according to his coach. He faded badly after the last flip to wind up next-to-last in his heat and 18th overall.

Hackett went on to an easy victory in the final, snapping a streak of runner-up finishes that included the last three world championships and the 2004 Athens Olympics.

South Africa’s Roland Schoeman set the first world record of the meet in the semifinals of the 50 butterfly – a non-Olympic event. His time of 23.01 beat the mark of 23.30 set last year by American Ian Crocker, who was second-fastest in the semis.

Crocker, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2000 Cheverus High of Portland graduate, was second-fastest in the semis at 23.32 and had the fastest time in the morning prelim heats (23.50).

“I’m going to have to change some things to be comfortable for this race,” Crocker said on the USA Swimming Web site. “Let’s face it. My 100 fly, I’m splitting a 24.2 [seconds] at the 50 mark so I know I’m a good sprint butterflier. I just need to learn how to do the shorter race. Maybe I’ll learn something new tonight and carry it over the day after.”

Crocker will face Schoeman Monday night in the 50 fly final.

In the relay, Phelps got off to one of his typically slow starts, touching fifth at the 50-meter mark. But he had the Americans out front by the time he passed off the pool to Walker.

From there, it was no contest. The Americans broke the mark set by the Russians (3:14.06) at the championships two years ago, just missed the world record held by the South Africans and won their first world championship in the event since 1998.

“Our next big goal is to break the world record,” Phelps said. “It’s great for us to get this race back.”

Other winners on the first night of swimming: Australia in the women’s 400 free relay and France’s Laure Manaudou in the women’s 400 free.

Manaudou, the defending Olympic champion, nearly pulled a Phelps, claiming the last spot in the final with the eighth-fastest time in the prelims.

She then swam nearly five seconds better in the evening to take the gold in 4:06.44, holding off Japan’s hard-charging Ai Shibata. Great Britain’s Caitlin McClatchey was third.

“Well, I definitely feel better than this morning,” Manaudou said, sounding just like Phelps. “My coach said things to motivate me. He told me I was the best and that no one could beat me.”

The morning swim is supposed to be a formality for someone of Phelps’ caliber, but he wasn’t even close to advancing. He was nearly six seconds behind Hackett and trailed the last of eight qualifiers by more than 11/2 seconds.

Bowman blamed a lack of experience for Phelps’ dismal performance. He added the 400 and 100 free for this meet, dropping two events in which he holds the world record.

“He really doesn’t have a good feel of how to swim it properly,” Bowman said. “When he moved on those guys this morning, they didn’t back down. I think he was confused.”

With Phelps out of the way and countryman Ian Thorpe skipping the meet, Hackett coasted to the first swimming gold of the championships with a wire-to-wire victory.

His relief was apparent when he popped from the water, spotted his winning time of 3:42.91 and defiantly shot his right fist skyward. Hackett finished second to Thorpe at the last three championships and in Athens.

Russia’s Yuri Prilukov took second, followed by Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli. The lone American, Peter Vanderkaay, was sixth.

“Obviously, it’s a shame Michael wasn’t here today,” Hackett said.

Not that he felt too bad about it.

“He was in the race,” the Aussie said. “He just didn’t make the finals.”

Now, the most medals Phelps can win in Montreal is seven, which would still match his breakthrough performance at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona. But he’s got a long way to go before he can realistically challenge Hackett in the 400.