{"id":147771,"date":"2015-08-03T09:07:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T16:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=147771"},"modified":"2015-08-03T09:07:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T16:07:36","slug":"birthday-boy-ryan-lochte-shakes-off-doubters-with-200-free-semis-top-seed-at-2015-fina-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/birthday-boy-ryan-lochte-shakes-off-doubters-with-200-free-semis-top-seed-at-2015-fina-world-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Boy Ryan Lochte Shakes Off Doubters With 200 Free Semis Top Seed at 2015 FINA World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being written off this morning when qualifying 13th, USA’s Ryan Lochte<\/strong> showed he isn’t done yet on his birthday as he led the way in the men’s 200-meter free semis at the 2015 FINA World Championships.<\/p>\n

Lochte threw down a top time of 1:45.36 for the top seed. \u00a0That swim moved him to the top of the world rankings, better than Paul Biedermann’s<\/strong> 1:45.60 from German Nationals.<\/p>\n

Lochte pulled off the feat from out in lane 1 as he is looking for his 24th career world championship medal and potentially his 16th gold medal in long course competition.<\/p>\n

Great Britain’s James Guy<\/strong> qualified second in 1:45.43 as he broke Robbie Renwick’s<\/strong> British record of 1:45.99 from 2009. \u00a0He moved to second in the world rankings with the swim.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy<\/strong> chased down the third seed in 1:46.09, while South Africa’s Chad le Clos<\/strong> clocked in with a fourth-seeded 1:46.10.<\/p>\n

China’s Sun Yang<\/strong>, the 400-meter free winner, qualified in fifth in 1:46.17.<\/p>\n

Germany’s Paul Biedermann<\/strong> (1:46.20), The Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Verschuren<\/strong> (1:46.43) and Russia’s Aleksandr Krasnykh<\/strong> (1:46.45) made up the rest of the championship field.<\/p>\n

USA’s Conor Dwyer<\/strong> just missed the final with a ninth-place 1:46.64.<\/p>\n

SCHEDULED EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n