ROME (Reuters) - Ryan Lochte led an American one-two in the men's 400 meters individual medley on Sunday to complete a golden double at the world championships.
Lochte, who broke Michael Phelps' 200 medley world record to win that title on Thursday, triumphed in four minutes 07.01 seconds, just ahead of his compatriot Scott Tyler Clary. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh took the bronze medal.
"It's new for me to be in the spotlight in an individual medley race," Lochte, the Olympic 200 backstroke champion, told reporters.
"I'm very happy I broke Phelps record in the 200 IM. I hope someday he will be back in this race because I love racing against him."
Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, decided to scale down his program in Rome and not to defend his 200 and 400 medley world titles here.
Lochte led for most of the race but looked to be fading toward the end, with Clary and Cseh finishing strongly, but he had just enough power in the tank to touch first.
"I was talking to Ryan before the race and he said that I shouldn't go out too fast as he was fed up with chasing my ass," Clary told reporters. "I ended up behind him but silver is ok."
(Editing by Tom Justin Palmer)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment