Swimming: Lochte strikes double gold

The American won the men’s 200m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay.

ISTANBUL: US swim star Ryan Lochte bagged two golds on the opening day of the World Shortcourse Championships to add to the five medals he won in the London Olympics in the summer.

The American first led from start to finish to win the men’s 200m freestyle before he teamed up with Anthony Ervin, James Feigen and Matthew Grevers to win the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Lochte’s gold in the 200m freestyle was his 15th career world short course championships gold medal.

The second gold was secured after anchor-leg swimmer Grevers chased down and overtook Russia’s Artem Lobuzov and then held off the late charge of Italy’s Filippo Magnini to secure Lochte’s 16th gold medal in the championships history.

Those two golds saw the US team sit atop the medals standings at the end of day one.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2012.