Ryan wins first gold medal in 200m free & sets American and Championship Record

1:41.08

Ryan won his first gold in today's 200m free. Here's what SwimmingWorld Magazine had to say about the race:

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/25937.asp

Men's 200 free finals
USA's Ryan Lochte called his shot during prelims with a meet-record time of 1:42.38. That swim wiped out the long-standing record of 1:43.28 set by Ian Thorpe in Hong Kong in 1999, and moved Lochte to third in the world this year behind Danila Izotov (1:41.84) and Yannick Agnel (1:41.96). Izotov made finals, but Agnel missed out with a surprising 10th-place 1:43.51. It also beat the ratified American record time of 1:42.78 set by Michael Phelps in East Meadow in 2006.

Lochte returned in the finale to post a blazing fast time of meet-record time of 1:41.08. That swim is the fastest by a citizen of the U.S., either ratified or un-ratified. His time beat the un-ratified top time by an American of 1:42.17 set by Peter Vanderkaay at the Duel in the Pool in Manchester last year. USA Swimming elected not to ratify times swum in a techsuit after implementing its own techsuit ban in Oct. 2009, even though the worldwide ban took place Jan. 2010.

Notably, his time far surpassed Izotov's previously top-ranked effort of 1:41.84 from the European Short Course Championships, and moved Lochte to fifth all time in the event with the fastest time in a textile. Previously, Thorpe owned the best textile time with a 1:41.10 from 2000.

Izotov raced to a strong second-place time of 1:41.70 to improve upon his season best effort from the European Short Course Championships, while Tunisia's Ous Mellouli checked in with a third-place 1:42.02. Russia's Nikita Lobintsev (1:42.03), Germany's Paul Biedermann (1:42.19), Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski (1:42.73), Australia's Tommaso D'Orsogna (1:42.96) and Cayman Island's Shaune Fraser (1:43.91) completed the finale.