Shanghai— Ryan Lochte’s victory in the 400-meter individual medley on the final night of the swimming world championships was emblematic of the way the American has dominated this meet — outshining Michael Phelps in the process.
Lochte took his fifth gold Sunday with a time of 4 minutes, 7.13 seconds — a massive four seconds in front of silver medalist and teammate Tyler Clary.
Lochte was already in the lead by the time he surfaced following his initial dive off the starting block. He had a one-second lead after the opening butterfly leg and expanded that to two seconds over the backstroke and breaststroke legs before powering home in the freestyle to win by about two body lengths.
As he exited the pool deck, Lochte tossed his two swim caps into an appreciative crowd at the Oriental Sports Center.
Clary took silver in 4:11.17 and Yuya Horihata of Japan got bronze in 4:11.98.
Lochte won all four of his individual events — beating Phelps in two of them — and also broke the only world record of the eight-day meet. He took another gold, plus a bronze, with the U.S. relay teams.
However, Lochte wasn’t included on the U.S. squad for the final relay of the meet, the 4×100 medley later.
Phelps was swimming the relay, attempting to add to his haul of three golds, two silvers and a bronze thus far.
Now it’s fair to say Lochte has had the edge over Phelps this year, too, setting up an enticing duel at next year’s London Olympics.
There was also an American winner in the women’s 50 breaststroke, with Jessica Hardy reclaiming the title she relinquished to Russia’s Yuliya Efimova in 2009.
Hardy missed the 2009 worlds while serving a one-year doping ban, even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport accepted that she was not at fault for consuming a contaminated dietary supplement.
Hardy won in 30.19, Efimova took the silver and another American, Rebecca Soni, got bronze.