Friday, August 3, 2012

Phelps bests Lochte, wins 200 IM gold

(AP) LONDON - Michael Phelps won the 200-meter individual medley Thursday for his first individual gold of the London Games, becoming the first man to win the same indvidual event in three straight Olympics.

Phelps, who won the 4x200 relay earlier, clocked 1 minute, 54.27 seconds in the 200 IM for his record 20th career Olympic medal and 16th gold. He had failed to complete a threepeat in two previous events, the 200 fly and the 400 IM.

American Teammate Ryan Lochte touched in 1:54.90 to take the silver medal and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary was third in 1:56.22.

Earlier Thursday, American Rebecca Soni swam into the record books again. Tearing through the water in her favorite pink suit, Soni set her second world record in as many days to defend her Olympic title in the 200-meter breaststroke Thursday. She touched in 2 minutes, 19.59 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:20.00 she set in the semifinals.

She broke into a big smile when she saw the time, racing the clock more than she was anyone in the water. Japan's Satomi Suzuki took silver, more than a second behind at 2:20.72, while Russia's Yulia Efimova claimed bronze in 2:20.92.

"I'm so happy," Soni said. "I can't believe I did it."

Lochte was hoping to pull off an impressive double, swimming the finals of the 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley about a half-hour apart. He didn't get off to a good start, fading in his first race to a bronze medal in the back.

The U.S. team still picked up its second gold medal of the night and 10th at the Olympic pool when Tyler Clary rallied on the final lap to pull off the upset in an Olympic-record 1:53.41. Japan's Ryosuke Irie also got by Lochte on the final stroke, taking silver in 1:53.78. Lochte's time of 1:53.94 was good enough for his fourth medal of the London Games, but that's far from the dominant meet he predicted.

Last year, Lochte looked as though he had surpassed Michael Phelps at the top of the swimming world when he captured five gold medals at the world championships. The Floridian won't come close to that at the Olympics.

In Soni's race, South Africa's Suzaan van Biljon led at the first turn, but the American quickly seized control on the second lap. She was comfortably ahead by the second turn, then turned on the speed to beat her own record.

"It's been my goal since I was a little kid to go under 2:20," Soni said. "That's when my coach told me you're going to be the first woman to go under 2:19. I've been chasing it ever since. I'm just so happy."

The same couldn't be said of Lochte, who failed to defend his Olympic title in the 200 backstroke, then tried to pull himself together to face Phelps in the second of their head-to-head showdowns. But he fell short again.

Lochte won the first with a dominating performance in the 400 individual medley on the opening night of swimming, but he hasn't been the same since then. He failed to hold on in the anchor leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay, leaving the Americans with a silver, and he finished fourth - off the medal podium - in the 200 free.