Dubai: Ryan Lochte of the US and Mereia Belmonte of Spain were the heroes of the opening night at the 10th Fina World Swimming Championships (25m) at the brand new Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sports Complex here last night.
Lochte entered swimming's history books for the most World Championship Short Course medals won by a male swimmer when he set a new championships record to win the 200-metre freestyle gold, while Belmonte became a rare gold medallist for Spain in swimming when she got the better of a star-studded field that included Felicity Galvez of Australia and Liu Zige of China.
Tied for the record with Australia's Michael Klim on 15 medals at the beginning of this competition, Lochte was in a zone of his own as he took the lead at the 150 metre mark and never looked back even as Tunisia's Olympic gold medallist Oussama Mellouli and Russia's Danila Izotov and world record holder Paul Biedermann chased him down.
Lochte kept up his lead to win in a time of 1:41.08, a new championships record and a shade better than the time of 1:42.38 he set during the morning heats. Mellouli had been second best during his heats with a time of 1:42.41, but all he could manage was a bronze despite a better time of 1:42.02 behind silver medallist Izotov who had a time of 1:41.70.
"Normally, my first race is the worst race," Lochte said after his first gold at this competition.
Championships gold
This was Lochte's ninth championships gold medal — a record that he had shared with fellow countryman Matt Dunn. In 2006 and 2008, Lochte had won both the 200m Individual Medley and the 400m Individual Medley.
The American swimmer can still look forward to more records here over the next four days as he can become the second male swimmer to win both Medleys in three consecutive world championships editions. Dunn was the first to do this from 1995 to 1999. "Records will always be there to be broken. I am just happy to get this competition off to a winning start," Lochte said.
Lochte also holds the distinction of winning three gold medals in individual events in each of the last two editions of the World Championships. He can now become the first man to win three gold medals in individual events in three consecutive editions.
Meanwhile, Belmonte was the surprise package in the women's 200m butterfly as she came up with a strong final lap to get past China's Zige and Aussie girl Galvez, both of whom had been having a duel of their own at either end of the pool through a major part of the race.
"The feeling of winning is so good," Belmonte said after finishing ahead of Great Britain's Jemma Lowe and Swedish girl Petra Granlund.
