Lochte slices record

Ryan Lochte became the first person to break a long course world record since 2010 when the controversial polyurethane swimsuits were banned when he retained the men's 200 metres individual medley title at the World Championships.

American Lochte, 26, edged a titanic tussle with Michael Phelps to clock 1min 54.00sec, bettering his own mark by 0.10, while his compatriot took silver in 1.54.16, ahead of Hungary's Laszlo Cseh (1:57.69).

He had won silver behind Phelps in the same event at the last two Games in Athens and Beijing.

Phelps led for the first butterfly leg, while Lochte took over at the halfway mark.

Lochte looked to have developed a winning lead halfway down the final freestyle lap, before Phelps surged again and the pair were within a fingernail of each other at the wall.

"About the race, all I can say can be summed up in one word: 'Yeah!'," Lochte said.

"Any time you break the world record you gotta be excited. I trained hard and it paid off. I knew this was gonna be a battle between me and Michael and I got the better end this time."

Phelps had not competed in the event at the Rome World Championships in 2009, and has dropped the 400m medley from his programme, leaving the more gruelling distance to Lochte and Cseh to battle over.

The fact he finished so closely to Lochte will also do wonders for Phelps' confidence, given his acknowledged aversion to coach Bob Bowman's gruelling training schedule after he won an unprecedented eight Olympics golds at Beijing in 2008.

Phelps, who said before the championships began that he had realised he was only hurting himself by not turning up to Bowman's training sessions, has committed just one more year to his swimming career, planning to retire after London.

"I felt good. I thought I was a little long at the finish and that cost me the race," Phelps said.

Lochte has now won two gold medals in Shanghai, having pipped Phelps for the 200m freestyle title on Tuesday and is expected to defend the 200m backstroke title he won in Rome today.

Phelps has now won a gold, two silvers and a bronze from the 4x100m freestyle relay.

South African Olympic semifinalist Neil Versfeld, 26, fell short in his attempt to reach the men's 200m breaststroke final yesterday.

He was 16th in the semifinals, finishing last in the second race in 2min 12.32sec. - Reuters and Sapa