Apparently, it's Yannick Agnel's time. One night after swimming the anchor leg as France won the men's 4x100 relay, Agnel overpowered Ryan Lochte and the rest of a star-studded field to win gold in the men's 200-meter freestyle. Taehwan Park of South Korea and Yang Sun of China tied for silver, with Lochte finishing fourth.
With two gold medals and just as many impressive performances, Agnel is becoming the men's swimming star of the London Olympics. Agnel exploded toward the wall over the final 50 meters, finishing well ahead of the competition. His final time was 1:43:14 while Sun and Park touched at 1:44:93. Lochte finished in 1:45:04.
German world record holder Paul Biedermann finished fifth, followed by Robbie Renwick (GB), Thomas Fraser-Holmes (AUS), Danila Izotov (RUS). Featuring so much top swimming talent, the 200-meter free final had been billed as the "Race of the Century."
"I did my best," Lochte told the Associated Press. "I guess sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I gave it 110 percent. There's probably some things I messed up on, but you live and learn. (Agnel is) a great racer. There's no doubt about it. He's quick and he showed it last night and tonight. I'm happy for him. He did good."
Lochte, who has already won gold in the 400-meter individual medley, finished with the fifth best time in preliminaries and swam in the second lane in the final.
Swimming World notes that Lochte's performance was a far cry from the one he authored in 2011 in Shanghai, winning a world title with a time of 1:44.44. Of course, that time would have not been fast enough to defeat Agnel.