Lochte Sets American Record In The 400 IM At The Short Course World Championships
Thursday, April 6, 2006 | Men's Swimming & Diving
University of Florida senior Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) earned his first title at the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championship by winning the 400-meter individual medley in Shanghai, China on Thursday. Lochte, who won the NCAA title in the 400-yard IM less than two weeks ago, clocked a time of 4:02.49 to break Michael Phelps' American record by half of a second.
Lochte's record-setting performance comes less than 24 hours after racing in five events during the first day of competition. Combined with traveling overseas, Lochte admitted that a night of rest helped him re-energize for Thursday's races.
“Last night felt really bad,” Lochte said. “I just had a lot of races. But I got a good night's sleep, woke up, and was ready for the 400 IM. I think I was able to turn it around. It felt good.”
The 400-yard IM traditionally has been one of Lochte's strongest events. He has won the event twice at the NCAA Championships and set the NCAA record on March 24, 2006 with a time of 3:38.15.
"Traveling over here, it was tough getting used to the time change," Lochte said. "Usually the first day is always the hardest for me to get used to. I just brushed it off of last night and got focused for my events today. I knew the Italian guy next to me (Luca Marin) was going to be the person to beat in the 400 IM, but I just went for it in the fly and back, then tried to hold on for dear life in the breast. I saw him coming, but it just came down staying tough in the freestyle."
Lochte will try to add to his medal total on Friday when he competes in the 200 IM. The Short Course World Championships are being held in a pool 25-meters in length, compared to the 25-yards used in collegiate competition. Olympic size pools are 50-meters in length.
A broadcast of both prelims and finals from the meet are also available for purchase online and can be viewed either live or from the archive. In addition to the webcast, highlights will be cablecast on WCSN's weekly magazine show, World Championship Sports on Altitude Sports and Entertainment, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Comcast Local in Detroit, Comcast SportsNet West, Comcast/Charter Sports SouthEast, CN8 and SportsNet New York. For more information, visit www.usaswimming.org and click on the graphic on the right-hand side of the page.
Live results are available online at www.omegatiming.com. For more information on the Short Course World Championships, go to www.usaswimming.org/media. To access the special Short Course Worlds media page, follow the link on the right-hand side of the Media home page.
-UF-
