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MEN’S 200 MEDLEY – FINALS
2012 World Champ: 1:49.63 – Ryan Lochte – United States
2010 World Champ: 1:50.08 – Ryan Lochte – United States
Meet Record: 1:49.63 – Ryan Lochte – United States – 2012
World Record: 1:49.63 – Ryan Lochte – United States – 2012
Kosuke Hagino of Japan took the final individual event of the evening posting a time of 1:50.47. Hagino and American Ryan Lochte had a close battle throughout the entire race until Hagino pulled away in the final 50 meters.
Heading into the freestyle Lochte had a lead of two one-hundredths of a second over Hagino, but gave up almost a second to the Japanese swimmer in the final split. Hagino swum the final 50 in a time of 26.64 compared to 27.50 for Lochte.
Lochte picked up the silver touching in a time of 1:51.31.
Daiya Seto of Japan finished third in a time of 1:51.79.
Brazilian Henrique Rodrigues finished fourth in a time of 1:52.63 followed by Philip Heintz of Germany who recorded a 1:52.81.
Marcin Cieslak of Poland finished sixth in a time of 1:53.91 followed by Diogo Carvalho of Portugal who posted a 1:54.03 and Yakov Yan Toumarkin of Israel who recorded a 1:54.36.
Socal guy, that’s an interesting question: is Lochte’s recent problems finishing races due to the coaching change or something else? I.e., problems with injury. I personally like Troy’s big volume approach. Hard to keep that kind of training up for long periods of time tho. Not even so much b/c of age, but psychologically.
It seems to be true that swimmers can improve sprint speed into their 30’s. It is less common to see improvement in longer events as they age. This suggests 2 things to me: 1. Lochte’s current coach (Marsh) is more reknowned for coaching sprinters (although he seems to be great at coaching all events), so he might be a better choice objectively than Troy, who is more reknowned for coaching distance specialists (however, in s/c he has coached many stars, including Lochte); 2. Since the 200 IM in s/c is more of a sprinter’s event than the same event in l/c, one would think Lochte would have a better chance of beating Hagino here than in a l/c race. Of… Read more »
Its sad, that this is the second race that lochte couldnt finish. Should’ve never left greg troy
I agree with your point, but I think that it has more to do with him being 30. He deserves a lot of credit for still being at a world class level. There is no shame in losing to a hungry 21 yr old superstar in the making.
So this illustrates another reason why I am a fan of Lochte’s….humble in victory and defeat. I know i would be excited if I won a world title in anything, but I would at least attempt to be mindful of those around me. I think the screaming is a little excessive and classless. How many times has Lochte laid the smack down on his swims, including against Hagino, and all he gave was a little fist pump then made sure he recognized his competitors with hand shakes, etc? It reminds me a little of katijima and hansen…
I think hagino definitely deserves the benefit if the doubt since i recall that he typically appears to be a class act and… Read more »
I think you’re right to give him the benefit of the doubt. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is Hagino’s first time being a World Champion. He’s always been right there, and usually Seto or Lochte is right there to foil him, and now he finally came out on top. As high as the expectations on Hagino have been the past few years, and with him overloading his schedule at Barcelona and relatively underperforming, I can’t blame him for getting carried away now that it’s finally happened. He gave a short shout and did a fist pump, then turned and took Lochte’s hand and you can see him giving a nod. It doesn’t seem too excessive to… Read more »
Hagino took two dolphin kicks on his second breaststroke pulldown. Lochte took one. Not saying that was the difference, but with Hosszu doing the same thing in the 400IM, there seems to be a new trend developing…