Ryan Lochte strong for the 200m freestyle title at the 2012 London Olympics – Swimming News
With the conclusion of 2012 European Long Course Championships, Ryan Lochte has remained a strong contender for the Men’s 200m freestyle at the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
The 27-year-old Lochte, who captured gold medal of the 200m event at the 2011 World Championships with the timing of 1 minute and 44.44 seconds, is hot favourite for the title of the event at the upcoming Olympics.
His effort remained marginally faster from the 14-time Olympic champion, Michael Phelps, who snared silver medal of the discipline with the timing of 1 minute and 44.79 seconds.
Currently, a French swimmer, Yannick Agnel is on the top of 2012 early world rankings, with his effort of 1 minute and 44.42 seconds. His effort was just 0.02 seconds faster from Lochte’s effort at the last world titles.
On the other hand, world record holder of the 200m discipline, Paul Biedermann of Germany recently captured gold medal of the 200m discipline at the European LC Championships.
The 25-year-old Biedermann devastated hopes of his opponents and seized gold medal of the discipline with the timing of 1 minute and 46.27 seconds. His title claiming effort was considerably slower from the fastest swimmers in the world so far but Biedermann
is hopeful that he can make a substantial improvement within the available time.
Biedermann owns the world mark of the four-lap freestyle discipline as he clinched gold medal of the 200m discipline with the timing of 1 minute and 42.00 seconds at the 2009 Rome World Championships.
At the European titles, the German veteran was followed by Amaury Leveaux of France, who finished his swim in a time of 1 minute and 47.69 seconds. Subsequently, Dominik Kozma of Hungary emerged as the third fastest swimmer of the tournament as he tapped
the wall with the timing of 1 minute and 47.72 seconds.
With the recent performances of elite swimmers, Agnel, who will represent France in the 200m event, is likely to be overpowered by Lochte and Phelps.
In addition, it would be interesting to see who wins the title of the four-lap discipline at the London Games.
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