Golden Lochte gives US relay record

Ryan Lochte wrote another golden chapter in his memorable world championships Friday as he pushed the USA to a record fourth straight 4x200m freestyle win and claimed his third individual title. The American team were lagging after out-of-sorts Michael Phelps' lead-off leg but Lochte demonstrated the form that brought him the individual 200m freestyle crown as he overtook France's Fabien Gilot on the penultimate turn.
Lochte's efforts helped the United States, who timed 7min 2.67sec to finish ahead of France and China, become the first team to win the event four times in a row, outstripping Australia's treble between 1998 and 2003. "Once we hit around the 75m mark I knew it was over. I knew I had a lot of energy left and I was going to hit that second wall and then just go for it," Lochte said.
"Everyone did their own part. We went out there and just did our best, that's all we did - and we came out with the win." It capped another bravura night for the 26-year-old, who has emerged from Phelps' shadow with a world record in the 200m individual medley and doubled his personal gold medal haul to four on Friday.
"I've said this every night so far: hopefully, with more training I can swim faster," said Phelps. "But with these three guys behind me, that's something I'm comfortable with. I'm confident in these guys. "They've held the back end of the relay together really well. I don't think there's anybody better at the end of the relay than Ryan. He finished it all for us - we set it up, and he brought it home."
Lochte, whose medley record was the first since high-tech swimsuits were banned last year, also led from start to finish in the 200m backstroke to reclaim the title he won in 2007. The Olympic champion timed 1min 52.96sec ahead of Japan's Ryosuke Irie and Tyler Clary of the United States.
Meanwhile, Olympic title-holder Rebecca Soni also stretched the United States' medals table lead when she won her second breaststroke gold of the championships in the women's 200m final. And Hungary's Daniel Gyurta won an exciting duel with four-time Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan to retain his men's 200m breaststroke crown.
Gyurta, who came off second best to Kitajima in the 2004 Olympic final, overtook the "Frog King" over the last 50 metres to claim gold in 2:08.41. Germany's Christian vom Lehn was third. "I was the fourth in the 100m (breaststroke), but today I won the silver medal, so I feel happy. But in next year's Olympic Games, my goal is to win the gold medal," Kitajima said.
Also on Friday, the championships witnessed only their third ever dead-heat final - and the second this week - as Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus and Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen both finished the women's 100m freestyle in 53.45. The rare event happened after Camille Lacourt and Jeremy Stravius both became France's first male world champions with identical times in the 100m backstroke on Tuesday.
"I'm happy. Yes, I'm surprised," said Herasimenia. "I believed I could do it but I couldn't be sure." Dutch swimmer Ranomi Kromowidjojo was awarded bronze and uncannily, there was another dead heat for fourth place between Britain's Francesca Halsall and Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands, who both clocked 53.72.
But the evening again belonged to Lochte, a day after his 200m individual medley of 1:54.00 set the first world record in 19 months and beat Olympic champion Phelps in the process. At the last world championships in 2009, polyurethane-clad swimmers set a whopping 43 world records in farcical scenes at Rome's Foro Italico. The suits helped break more than 200 global bests before they were outlawed.
Phelps, the 14-time Olympic gold-medallist, has struggled to find his peak after long periods neglecting training, although he now has two gold medals including the 4x200m freestyle and his individual 200m butterfly title. Also on Friday, Phelps was quickest into the 100m butterfly final with 51.47, outside his own world record, despite lagging in seventh place at the halfway point in his semi-final.
Medals table Medals table for swimming events at the world championships after the sixth night of pool action on Friday:

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            Gold  Silver  Bronze  Total

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United States  9      4      5       18

China          4      1      7       12

Australia      2      6      1        9

France         2      2      3        7

Italy          2      2      0        4

Brazil         2      0      0        2

Denmark        2      0      0        2

Russia         1      2      0        3

Hungary        1      0      2        3

Netherlands    1      0      1        2

Belarus        1      0      0        1

Norway         1      0      0        1

South Korea    1      0      0        1

Japan          0      4      1        5

Canada         0      2      1        3

Britain        0      2      0        2

Germany        0      0      4        4

South Africa   0      0      2        2

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