Following his silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay and gold in the 200m individual medley last night, Lochte claimed two more medals on day six of the Championships.

In the 200m backstroke, Lochte was up against London 2012 champion and compatriot Tyler Clary and it was expected to be an American one-two but in which order was yet to be determined.

However, Poland's Radoslaw Kawecki emerged as a new star in the backstroke as the 21-year-old put in a superb performance to split the two Americans and finish second ahead of Clary.

But, with a time season's best time of 1min 53.79sec, reigning world champion Lochte took the gold.

"Going into tonight, I knew I had a triple but I was not thinking about it, I took each race at a time and it really helped me out," said the five-time Olympic gold medallist.

"My coaches and the USA team staff also made sure I had the proper warm down between each race so I could get ready for the next one.

"As you get older, you're supposed to do less events.

"In my case, I do more.

"What I love is to do multiple events, it was a big challenge and I was able to overcome it.

"I was able to post those times and become a world champion tonight so it gives me a lot of confidence for the future.

"I love swimming and racing, I love training for multiple events, I train that way.

"Whenever I lose, I still love swimming and will still walk away with a smile."

A disappointed Clary said: "I'll call my performance acceptable.

"The celebration after the London Olympics was ongoing and I gained a lot of weight.

"I actually started feeling like myself again in the water after the World Championship trials.

"Taking that into consideration, I wasn't even thinking about going under 1:55."


Lochte's second gold of the day came in the 4x200m freestyle relay as he and teammates Conor Dwyer, Charles Gipson Houchin and Ricky Berens finished ahead of Russia, while China repeated its performance at London 2012 by clinching bronze.

Hungarian Daniel Gyurta created his own piece of history in the final of the men's 200m breaststroke as he became the first swimmer to win the event on three consecutive occasions following his victory at the 2009 and 2011 World Championships in Rome and Shanghai respectively.

The reigning Olympic champion finished ahead of Germany's Marco Koch and Matti Mattsson of Finland in a Championship record time of 2:07.23, in a field that also included 18-year-old Japanese world record holder Akihiro Yamaguchi and Briton's Andrew Willis and Michael Jamieson who finished fourth and fifth respectively.

"I'm proud of this achievement; it's even better for me that I was able to do this after an Olympic gold," said Gyurta.

"This will definitely give me a lot of motivation in preparing for the Rio [2016] Olympics."


In the first final of the day, Australia's Cate Campbell claimed her maiden World Championship title as she touched home first ahead of a very strong final line-up in the women's 100m freestyle.

The 21-year-old saw off the challenge of Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom, who had earlier claimed gold in the 100m butterfly, and Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands, who finished third.

Beijing 2008 champion and current world record holder Britta Steffen of Germany and America;s Missy Franklin who already has four medals to her name at these Championships, finished outside the podium positions.

"This medal means a lot, my family and friends have put just as much work in as I did and I really owe this to them, it feels really great," said Campbell.

"It's weird to be striving all your life to achieve something and then achieve it in under a minute.

"I was extremely nervous coming into this race, I never see myself as the best in the field.

"I'd rather be the underdog so it was a bit strange coming in ranked number one."


Following her world record time of 2:09.11 in the semi-finals last night of the 200m breaststroke, Denmark's Rikke Pedersen was the favourite to clinch gold in the final but she had not reckoned with Russian Yulia Efimova.

The 21-year-old bronze medallist from London 2012, touched home ahead of the Dane, who claimed her first medal at Olympic or world level, with Micah Lawrence of the US finishing with bronze.

Afterwards Efimova revealed she was happy to win gold but she had another target in mind also.

"I wanted to beat the world record tonight," said Efimova, whose time was 2:19.41 with the Dane 0.67 behind.

"In the semi final, Rikke Pedersen was swimming so fast, I was swimming side by side with her but tonight, the pace was different and maybe that's why I couldn't break the world record."

Silver medallist Pedersen said: "I have mixed feelings.

"I was really pleased about yesterday's world record.

"In this final, I was fighting for the gold but I got silver, I'm sure that when I get home it'll be positive and I'll have good memories.

"I would have loved to get the gold medal instead of the world record.

"I don't think the world record will stay long, we have strong girls in breaststroke and I'm sure it will bring the event to a whole new level.

"It's my first medal at World Championships so I really appreciate where I am right now and I'll keep fighting."

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