Ryan Lochte wins record 4th world title in 200 IM

Turns out she’s awfully good going shorter, too.

Lochte’s gold was the first for an American man in the pool during the World Championships but the women’s team have been in supreme form at these Championships and they continued to impress, securing gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, which saw Katie Ledecky clinch her fourth title in Kazan. It’s always hard when you finish that close to the medals but fortunately I have the relay tomorrow and the 400m IM on Sunday.

Lochte won in one minute 55.81 seconds, as the Brazilian claimed silver in 1:56.65.

Ledecky won the 200 free on Wednesday, to go with victories in the 400 and 1,500 freestyles. She was still in front through the third lap before fading to eighth. “Thinking back a couple of years ago it was out of reach for me, so to be in this position now, especially with a year to go, it’s exciting”.

“This evening is the night I will never forget”, Ning said through a translator. She set two world records in the longest distance race for women. The recent high school graduate shows no signs of slowing down in Kazan, where she still has the 400 and 800 freestyles remaining.

The 18-year-old Ledecky’s three victories have accounted for all of the US gold through four days of competition in the pool. “That confidence has fueled my swims this week”. A reporter for the school newspaper, Michael Ledecky volunteered to write an essay, with Russian Federation as the backdrop, on what it has been like to watch his sister grow wings and fly far from the nest that he helped build. Etiene Medeiros of Brazil finished second in 27.26. She was fifth in the 100 backstroke.

The U.S. finished ahead of Italy and China in that event.

Mack Horton of Australia, who led the first eight laps, settled for third at 7:44.02.

200m butterfly: 1. Laszlo Cseh (Hun) 1:53.48, 2.

Cate Campbell is the defending champion.

“It’s probably one of the coolest world records I’ve broken”, Ledecky said.

Fu Yuanhui’s sterling performance gave China gold in the 50m backstroke.

Ning touched first in 47.84 seconds.

“I know I need to keep working on the race”, Cseh said.

It was Lochte’s 24th world championships medal – second only to Michael Phelps’ career total of 33 – and his 16th gold. He’s competing at the U.S. nationals in Texas this week. Lochte won a record fourth consecutive title in the 200 individual medley. Kevin Cordes (USA) 26.86.

Peaty and van der Burgh also finished 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke.

Morozov was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals, and Magnussen is home with a shoulder injury. He sat on the lane line in shock at the announcement. “I pretty much had to get it down in our pre-worlds camp and where better to work on it than at a world championships – ooops”. But what I do best, no matter what, is forget about what happened and move on.

“I will also remember forever when I broke the world record in this event in 2011 [in Shanghai]”.

The United States was second and Germany third.