Michael Phelps of the United States swims to the gold medal of the men’s 4x100m medley relay at the World Championships in Rome, Italy, on Sunday.
Bronze medalist Sun Yang of China poses after the men’s 1500m freestyle swimming final in Rome on Sunday. SD-Agencies
MICHAEL PHELPS ended on a golden note as the United States rounded out the World Championships’ world record total at a staggering 43 with a medley relay triumph.
Phelps, whose campaign began with a shock defeat in the 200m freestyle, bounced back to win the 100m and 200m butterfly, and the United States won all three men’s relays to give America’s superstar a creditable cache of five gold.
China’s Sun Yang won a bronze medal at the 1,500m freestyle, bringing China’s tally to third place at the swimming championships (four golds, two silvers and four bronzes), after the United States (10 golds, six silvers and six bronzes) and Germany (four golds, four silvers and one bronzes).
The meet concluded with the Americans’ world record swim of 3 minutes and 27.28 seconds, an improvement on the mark set by the U.S. team in winning Olympic gold in Beijing.
Germany’s Britta Steffen broke her third world record of the meet with her triumph in the women’s 50m free — a win that saw her match her 50m and 100m freestyle double of Beijing.
Liam Tancock of Britain lowered the men’s 50m backstroke world record for the second time in as many days and Russia’s Yulia Efimova clocked a world record to win the women’s 50m breaststroke.
Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli added a world title to his Olympic 1,500m freestyle gold.
His 14:37.28 was the second-fastest ever, but shy of Grant Hackett’s world record of 14:34.56 — leaving at least one sacrosanct mark on the books.
Canada’s Ryan Cochrane took the silver medal (14:41.38) ahead of China’s Sun Yang (14:46.84).
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, winner of two bronze medals already, climbed the top step of the podium with a victory in the women’s 400m medley, and American Ryan Lochte captured his fourth gold of the championships with a triumph in the men’s 400m individual medley.
Lochte capitalized on the absence of Phelps, who opted out of the four-stroke races this season. He broke Phelps’s world record in winning the 200m individual medley and also earned gold on two freestyle relays.
Lochte, like Phelps, Briton Gemma Spofforth and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, notched his world record here in the outdated Speedo LZR Racer, rather than one of the newer polyurethane suits that fueled Rome’s record rampage.
“There’s so much controversy between the suits, it seems like every race is a world record,” Lochte said.
He was looking forward to a rule change in January limiting the technology.
“I think we’ll decide who are real swimmers out there, I hope I’ll be among them.”
Hosszu couldn’t challenge the women’s 400m medley world record of Australian Stephanie Rice, but she beat the woman herself.
Hosszu won her first gold of the championships to go with two bronzes.
She dueled with Olympic silver medalist Kirsty Coventry throughout, finally overtaking the Zimbabwean for good on the final freestyle leg to win in 4:30.31.
(SD-Agencies)