FINA World Championships: Ryan Lochte's Monster Anchor Leg Secures 800 FR Win

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SHANGHAI, China, July 29. THE French attempted to put a scare into the United States in the men's 800 free relay, but Ryan Lochte would have none of it as his monster anchor leg secured a fourth straight world title for the U.S. in the event at the FINA World Long Course Championships.

The foursome of Michael Phelps (1:45.53), Peter Vanderkaay (1:46.07), Ricky Berens (1:46.51) and Ryan Lochte (1:44.56) put together a textile best of 7:02.67 in the distance relay event. That performance eclipsed the 7:03.24 set by the U.S. at the 2007 Pan Pacific Championships. Amazingly, Lochte nearly matched his anchor leg of 1:44.46 from the U.S. world record of 6:58.55 that occurred during the techsuit era at the 2009 World Championships.

The U.S. has now won four straight iterations of the event at the World Championships, breaking a tie with Australia. Australia had won three straight from 1998 to 2003, but the U.S. is the first nation to win four in a row.

France's Yannick Agnel (1:45.25), Gregory Mallet (1:46.81), Jeremy Stravius (1:45.40) and Fabien Gilot (1:47.35) gave the U.S. a bit of a run, leading the race after the third leg, but settled with a second-place 7:04.81.

China's Wang Shun (1:47.09), Zhang Lin (1:46.14), Li Yunqi (1:47.30) and Sun Yang (1:45.14) finished third in 7:05.67.

Germany (7:08.32), Australia (7:08.48), Great Britain (7:10.84), Japan (7:10.92) and Italy (7:12.26) completed the rest of the championship heat.