Kazan: Ryan Lochte of the United States made history by winning his fourth straight 200m individual medley gold at the world swimming championships yesterday.
Lochte clocked 1min 55.81sec with Brazil’s Thiago Pereira taking silver at 0.84sec and China’s Wang Shun picked up bronze at 1.00 dead.
The 31-year-old Lochte is the first swimmer to win the world 200m IM four times in a row and has now won 16 gold medals at world championships dating back to 2005.
Michael Phelps has won three consecutive 200m IM world titles, but Lochte has now taken the gold in this event at every world championships since Rome in 2009.
This is Lochte’s 24th medal at his sixth world championships and his first in Kazan.
Grant Hackett is the only other swimmer to have won four consecutive world titles in a single event, having achieved the feat in the 1,500m freestyle between 1998 and 2005.
Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky picked up her fourth gold medal at Kazan’s world swimming champions yesterday as the United States won the women’s 4x200m freestyle title.
Ledecky, who anchored the US team, touched the wall in 7min 45.37sec as Italy took silver, 3.04sec back, with China earning bronze at 3.73.
The 18-year-old Ledecky had already won the 200, 400 and 1,500m freestyle golds in Kazan and still has the 800m heats to come today with the final scheduled for tomorrow night.
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