American Ryan Lochte bagged his second gold medal of the world short course swimming championships here yesterday as two new world records were set on the second night of competition
American Ryan Lochte bagged his second gold medal of the world short course swimming championships here yesterday as two new world records were set on the second night of competition.
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| USA's Ryan Lochte celebrates winning the 400m individual medley at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Dubai. pic/afp |
Lochte (26) was first to get in on the action, claiming his second title here, but more importantly also the first individual world record of 2010.
He sped to victory in the 400m individual medley in 3min 55.50sec, slicing close to two seconds off the previous mark set by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary in December last year.
"I wasn't really expecting that (world record). I was going out there, racing the field, and I had no idea where I was during the race. I'm really happy, it was a world record and you have to be happy with that," Lochte said.
Lochte was then also involved in the second record-breaking race of the night, but had to settle for the silver with his teammates in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
The Americans were neck and neck with the Russian quartet of Nikita Lobintsev, Danila Izotov, Evgeny Lagunov and Alexander Sukhorukov, but it was the Russians, who took the gold in a world record time of 6:49.04.
The American team of Peter Vanderkaay, Lochte, Garrett Weber-Gale and Richard Berens, also dipped under the previous world mark of 6:51.05, set by Canada in August last year, taking silver in 6:49.58. France were third in 6:53.05.
"We really wanted to beat the US team and we were happy to do it," said Izotov.
Although Lochte wouldn't have been pleased to miss out on another world title in the relay, his gold earlier in the evening completes a hat-trick of titles in the 400m individual medley, having also won at the 2006 and 2008 world championships.
