Ryan Lochte yesterday set the first individual swimming world record since high-tech bodysuits were outlawed.
The American won the 400-metre individual medley at the short-course world championships in 3 minutes, 55.50 seconds, smashing the previous record set by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary a year ago by nearly two seconds.
While China’s women’s squad set a world record in the 800 freestyle relay Wednesday, no other world marks - none in the long-course pool – have been set in 2010, with the bodysuit ban installed at the beginning of the year.
By contrast, in 2008 and 2009, nearly every record in the sport was broken multiple times.
Olympic 1,500-metre champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia finished second, a distant 1.90 seconds behind, and Tyler Clary of the United States was third, 2.06 back.
Lochte trailed Clary at the race’s midpoint, but was able to stay underwater longer than his teammate and took the lead on the butterfly leg. He was still 0.03 behind the world record mark at 300 metres and turned on the speed in freestyle to beat all his competitors by more than a bodylength and usher in a new era in swimming.
Never one to celebrate wildly, Lochte simply let out a smile when he looked up at the scoreboard.
The victory marked Lochte’s second consecutive individual gold of the meet after opening with a victory Wednesday in the 200 freestyle.
Lochte will be back in the pool later for the 800 freestyle relay and he has three more individual events plus perhaps another relay to swim before the meet ends on Sunday.
The rubberised bodysuits that revolutionised swimming the past two years ended up rewriting the record books almost completely. Of the 32 current long-course world records, all but four of them were set in 2009 – and only one – Grant Hackett’s mark in the 1,500-metre freestyle from 2001– came before 2008.
In the shorter 25-metre pool, all but 10 of the 42 world marks were set in 2009 entering this meet; and at the last short-course worlds in Manchester, England, two years ago, a whopping 18 world records were set.
Numbers like these prompted swimming governing body FINA to ban rubberized suits at the start of 2010 and limit men to wearing suits covering the waists down only to the knees. Women’s suits must now be sleeveless and not go beyond the knees.
Later yesterday, Russia set another world record in the men’s 800-metre freestyle relay at the short-course world championships.
Nikita Lobintsev, Danila Izotov, Evgeny Lagunov and Alexander Sukhorukov clocked 6 minutes, 49.04 seconds yesterday, improving on Canada's mark from last year by more than two seconds.
Sukhurukov held off the Richard Berens of the United States in the anchor leg. The Americans finished 0.54 seconds behind to take silver. France was third, a distant 4.01 seconds back.
The record was the third world mark of the meet.