The 28-year-old 11 times Olympic medallist (pictured top) became the first athlete to complete the distance in less than 1:50, claiming gold ahead of Japan's Daiya Seto and Hungarian László Cseh, who took silver and bronze respectively.

And it seems Lochte's performance even surprised himself.

"Anytime you get a world record, it's amazing," said Lochte, who had also won two gold medals on the opening day of these Championships on Wednesday (December 12).

"I wanted to break the world record.

"I didn't know I was going to go that fast."

Lochte's feat came on a day that also saw a further four Championships records set, as two came from Brazilian Nicholas Santos in the men's 50m butterfly heats, who first equalled the time of 22.40, and then,in and semi-finals, set new figures of 22.23, and two from Hungarian athletes Dániel Gyurta, who recorded 2:01.35 in the men's 200m breaststroke, and Katinka Hosszú with 58.49 in the women's 100m individual medley.


The 23-year-old Gyurta, was simply unstoppable in his race, finishing ahead of Britain's Michael Jamieson, the London 2012 Olympic silver medallist in the distance, who touched in at 2:03.00, and Russian Viatcheslav Sinkevich, who earned bronze in a time of 2:03.08.

After the race, Gyurta revealed his tactics and explained why he could not have won the gold in a better place than here.

"Based on the heats I decided to push from the beginning," he said.

"I did not want the race to be decided on the finish like during the [London 2012] Olympics.

"I wanted the race to be decided after the first 150m and I managed to do that, because the others could not take the pace.

"I love the city of Istanbul.

"I won the European title here [at the 2009 European Short Course Championships] so I was really happy to come back and win the last gold missing in my collection."

Hosszú, meanwhile, set the record in her third medal-winning race here after already securing victories in the 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley.

It was Lithuania's Rūta Meilutytė, winner of the 50m breaststroke title yesterday, who earned silver in the race recording 58.79, while China's Jing Zhao won bronze in 58.80.


The day also saw good results for the German team, as Britta Steffen claimed the women's 100m freestyle gold and Paul Biedermann reigned supreme in the men's 400m freestyle race, while Denmark – already holders of five medals from these Championships – claimed the women's 4x100m medley relay gold.

The remaining titles went to Russia's Vladimir Morozov who clinched gold in a thrilling men's 50m freestyle final, Melanie Costa Schmid of Spain in the women's 400m freestyle, China's Ying Lu in the women's 50m butterfly, and to Ukrainian Daryna Zevina in the women's 200m backstroke.

The US currently dominate the medal table with 17 medals – seven gold, four silver and six bronze – followed by Hungary, who have so far claimed seven medals – three gold, one silver and three bronze.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2012: Meilutytė claims Lithuania's first FINA World Short Course Championships gold
December 2012: Miley holds off Ye Shiwen to claim world title in Istanbul