FINA Short Course World Championships: Flash!Ryan Lochte Sets World Record in 400 IM; Day Two Finals In Progress

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 16. THE second night of finals at the 2010 FINA short course world championships featured the second world record of 2010 fall, this time in the men's 400 IM.

Women's 100 freestyle semifinals
Tonight's session began with Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands capturing lane four for tomorrow's sprint final with a top time of 52.27. Her teammate Ranomi Kromowidjojo will be the second seed with her semifinal time of 52.34. Natalie Coughlin of the USA, perhaps reserving her energy for the final of the 100 backstroke later this session, qualified third with a 52.51 after posting a 52.27 in prelims.

Dana Vollmer (52.67), Victoria Poon (52.76), Camille Muffat (52.90), Marieke Guehrer (52.95) and Emma McKeon (53.03) will also line up tomorrow for the final.

Men's 400 IM final
Ryan Lochte earned his second gold of the meet with a world record time of 3:55.50. The time shattered the previous global standard of 3:57.27 set in 2009 by Laszlo Cseh. Lochte was not under world record pace until 350 meters. The time also destroyed his American record of 4:01.76 that he set in the prelims.

Here are the comparative record splits:

Cseh: 53.58, 1:52.36, 3:01.11, 3:57.27
Lochte: 54.62, 1:53.73, 3:01.14, 3:55.50

Ous Mellouli earned the silver medal with a 3:57.40, just off Cseh's record. He was in third place for most of the race, trailing Tyler Clary of the USA until the final 50 meters. Clary was third in 3:57.56. Three of the top four times in history were swum in that final.

Rounding out the history-making final were David Verraszto (4:02.73), Chad Le Clos (4:03.74), Cseh (4:04.93), Gal Nevo (4:05.26) and Alexander Tikhonov (4:06.39).

Women's 50 breaststroke final
Rebecca Soni looks to be complete a breaststroke sweep with her win in the 50 breast final. She was behind with 15 meters left to swim in the race, but got her hand on the wall first with a 29.83. Leiston Pickett of Australia took the silver with a 29.84 and Zhao Jin of China completed the podium with a 29.90.

Yulia Efimova (29.99), Dorothea Brandt (30.19), Alia Atkinson (30.22), Randi Wang (30.26) and Sarah Katsoulis (30.34) also competed in the final.

Men's 100 backstroke final
Stanislav Donets almost dipped under the magical 49-second barrier with a winning time of 49.07. He just missed Nick Thoman's world record of 48.94 set last year and his own lifetime best of 48.97, which had stood as the world record for a few days last year.

France's Camille Lacourt, the fastest backstroker this year in the long course pool, won silver in 49.80. Aschwin Wildeboer of Spain won the bronze in 50.04.

Thoman (50.38), Ryosuke Irie (50.55), David Plummer (50.59), Jeremy Stravius (50.79) and Guilherme Guido (50.91) rounded out the field.

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