Lochte upstaged by French speed
Source: Agencies |
July 31, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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RYAN Lochte was upstaged by an astonishing relay leg from France's Yannick Agnel on Sunday, the day after defeating Michael Phelps in London.
The US coaches, influenced by Lochte's victory over eight-time Beijing gold medalist Phelps in the 400 meters individual medley, gave the new champion the anchor leg in the 4x100 meters relay. Neither Lochte nor Phelps competed in the 100 freestyle at the US championships but were still named in the quartet to contest the final on Sunday.
But Agnel swam the race of his life to touch first after clocking 46.74 seconds, a full second faster than the American.
The result was sweet revenge for the French after Jason Lezak caught Alain Bernard with his final stroke in Beijing to hand Phelps one of his titles.
"The 100 free?," shrugged Lochte. "I don't really swim it, I haven't swum the 100 free in a long time."
Meanwhile, the Australian media was unforgiving of their team of "weapons of mass destruction" led by "missile" James Magnussed, calling it one of the country's greatest swimming disasters.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph lamented a "dark day", with "Missile" Magnussen, the fastest man in the world this year, singled out after swimming a sluggish first leg.
"Our failure to win a medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay is our greatest swimming disaster in a rich history that dates back to Fanny Durack winning gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics," it said.
The US coaches, influenced by Lochte's victory over eight-time Beijing gold medalist Phelps in the 400 meters individual medley, gave the new champion the anchor leg in the 4x100 meters relay. Neither Lochte nor Phelps competed in the 100 freestyle at the US championships but were still named in the quartet to contest the final on Sunday.
But Agnel swam the race of his life to touch first after clocking 46.74 seconds, a full second faster than the American.
The result was sweet revenge for the French after Jason Lezak caught Alain Bernard with his final stroke in Beijing to hand Phelps one of his titles.
"The 100 free?," shrugged Lochte. "I don't really swim it, I haven't swum the 100 free in a long time."
Meanwhile, the Australian media was unforgiving of their team of "weapons of mass destruction" led by "missile" James Magnussed, calling it one of the country's greatest swimming disasters.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph lamented a "dark day", with "Missile" Magnussen, the fastest man in the world this year, singled out after swimming a sluggish first leg.
"Our failure to win a medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay is our greatest swimming disaster in a rich history that dates back to Fanny Durack winning gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics," it said.
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