Lochte's bid for 8 golds ends with relay loss

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ryan Lochte's bid for eight gold medals at the short-course world championships ended in his second event when the United States failed to medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay Wednesday.

Lochte was off to a good start on the opening night of the meet with a dominant win in the 200 free, but the U.S. fell behind in the relay after Nathan Adrian's opening leg, leaving Lochte too much time to make up when he dove in for the anchor leg.

Meanwhile, China set swimming's first world record of 2010, winning the women's 800 freestyle relay.

While world records fell by the dozens in 2008 and 2009, no individual or relay marks had been set this year in long- or short-course pools after rubberized bodysuits were outlawed.

Chen Qian, Tang Yi, Liu Jjing and Zhu Qianwei finished in 7 minutes, 35.94 seconds, lowering by nearly 3 seconds the mark Netherlands set two years ago.

Still, the biggest surprise was in the men's relay.

The French team of Alain Bernard, Frederick Bousquet, Fabien Gilot and Yannick Agnel won in 3:04.78, with Russia a slim 0.04 behind and Cesar Cielo's Brazil third, 0.96 back.

Normally the dominant force in relays, the U.S. team of Adrian, Garrett Weber-Gale, Richard Berens and Lochte placed fourth, a distant 1.32 behind.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps led off and Jason Lezak swam the anchor leg against Bernard, securing a memorable win for the U.S.

Phelps and Lezak were not here, and it was stunning to see Adrian, the top U.S. sprinter, only seventh after the opening leg.

In other races, Olympic champion Liu Zige of China led for most of the way but slowed in the final lap and finished fifth in the women's 200 butterfly won by Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain in 2:03.59.

Belmonte Garcia was back in the water later to win the grueling 400 individual medley in a championship record 4:24.21.

Lochte didn't celebrate after winning the 200 free in a meet record 1:41.08, nearly a full body-length ahead of Danila Izotov. The Russian finished 0.62 seconds behind and Olympic 1,500 champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third, 0.94 back.

Paul Biedermann, the German who holds the world record of 1:39.37, placed fifth, 1.11 behind Lochte.

Lochte was attempting to match Phelps' eight victories from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He has eclipsed Phelps this year as the world's top all-around swimmer. He beat Phelps in the 200 IM and 200 back at the U.S. championships this summer, then won six golds to Phelps' five at the Pan Pacific Championships in August.

On Thursday, Lochte will swim the 400 individual medley and the 800 free relay.

Lochte, like every U.S. athlete here, wore the initials of Fran Crippen on his warmup suit, in memory of the American open-water swimmer who died during a race in the United Arab Emirates two months ago.