Lochte completes medley double with 400m win

ROME — American Ryan Lochte gave himself an early birthday present Sunday, winning his fourth gold medal of the world Swimming Championships in the 400m individual medley.
Lochte clocked 4min 07.01sec to take the title, improving on his bronze medal finish at the Beijing Olympics and his runner-up finish to Michael Phelps in the 2007 World Championships.
World record-holder Phelps opted not to swim the four-stroke events here.
Lochte took full advantage of his absence, breaking Phelps's world record in winning the 200m medley on Thursday. Lochte also won 4x100m free and 4x200m free relay golds in Rome.
"It definitely felt good to get those wins in IM after coming second to Michael for so long," Lochte said. "But I wish he was there swimming it, just because he's a great competitor. I love racing him."
Lochte said the always demanding event was even tougher coming at the end of a long eight days of racing.
"I didn't think I was going to hurt that much," Lochte said. "Don't tell me about the last 150 - the last 150 hurt.
"When I touched going into freestyle I just knew I had a body length lead. I just gave it everything I had at the very end, and that's all I could ask.
"I'm glad this meet is over," added Lochte, who will be turning 25 on Monday. "It's my birthday tomorrow, I'm definitely going to celebrate."
Lochte's teammate Tyler Clary was second in 4:07.31, getting the touch ahead of 2005 world champion Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. Cseh, silver medallist behind Phelps in Beijing, clocked 4:07.37.
Clary revealed that is was some advice from Lochte himself that helped him finish on the medal podium.
"My first 200m was considerably slower than at the (US) trials and that was based on some advice that Ryan had given me for the race. Luckily it paid off for me and thank you for that," he said.
"He was kind of talking about chasing me down in the last 200m because I normally have a faster first 200 than he does and he said maybe you should try going out a little easier and maybe that will help you in the finish.
"It really did, I was able to put my head down and pull past a few guys so that really helped.
"He's really cool like that, it's really nice of him and like I said it worked out for me."
However, that advice almost cost Lochte according to the champion.
"I think I went out a little too fast and I kind of paid for that at the end. I told Clary after the race that if there was five more yards I think I would have gone fourth," he said.
"I was just dying at the very end but it was a race and that's what we do. When it comes down to it we don't look at the times we just go out and race and have fun."