American swimmer Ryan Lochte sunk record-chasing Michael Phelps Saturday in a pulsating start to the Olympics while China’s Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen wrote their name in the record books.
Lochte’s 400m individual medley showdown with Phelps turned out to be a no-contest as he dominated to win in 4min 05.18sec, ahead of Brazilian Thiago Pereira and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, with Phelps back in fourth.
The loss is a setback for 16-time medallist Phelps, who memorably won a record eight titles in Beijing, and needs just three more medals to overhaul Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina’s all-time best of 18.
“It was just a crappy race,” Phelps said. “I felt fine the first 200 and then I couldn’t really go the last 100.”
Phelps has another six events to go. But Lochte was not the only star of the first full day of action as Sun became China’s first ever male Olympic champion in the pool, with a commanding swim in the 400m freestyle.
Sun’s clash with champion Park Tae-Hwan was also much anticipated, but it almost didn’t happen after the South Korean was disqualified from his heat for a false start, before being reinstated after an 11th-hour appeal.
Their race was a classic, with Sun gradually reeling in the leading Park before leaving him for dead over the closing stages with a time of 3:40.14. Park took silver with America’s Peter Vanderkaay claiming bronze.
But the stand-out swim of the pool’s opening night belonged to Ye, 16, who shattered the 400m medley world record with 4:28.43 — more than a second faster than defending champion Stephanie Rice’s time from Beijing 2008.
Ye swam a lightning closing freestyle leg as she overtook pace-setting Elizabeth Beisel and finished nearly two body-lengths in front. America’s Beisel was second and China’s Li Xuanxu third, with Rice joint sixth.
“I dreamed of winning the gold medal, but I never ever expected to break a world record. I’m overwhelmed,” said Ye. “It is a big evening for Chinese swimming.”
Australia won their first gold in the women’s 4x100m relay, with Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger beating out the Netherlands and teen star Missy Franklin’s American team. After Friday’s lavish opening ceremony, it was a packed first day of full action with competition in 19 sports, from the far-flung rowing lake of Eton Dorney and across east London’s Olympic Park.
Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov shocked hosts Britain in the men’s road race while Chinese world number one shooter Yi Siling had the honour of claiming the first of the Games’ 302 golds at the Royal Artillery Barracks in the women’s 10m Air Rifle.
Russia’s Arsen Galstyan won the men’s under-60kg judo and Sarah Menezes took Brazil’s first Olympic gold in the sport, in the women’s under-48kg. But the story of the under-48kg was Hungary’s Eva Csernoviczki, who bounced back from being strangled unconscious in the quarter-finals to claim an unlikely bronze.
