London 2012 Olympics: Glory for Lochte as Phelps misses out on the medals

The winner of eight gold medals at the last Olympics, and proud owner of 14 in total, Phelps’s dream for these Games was to add another six titles to his collection. It was a modest ambition by his standards, but last night in the 400-metres individual medley it was thwarted at the first attempt – and not only by his compatriot Ryan Lochte.

The favourite for the final, after heats in which Phelps only just squeezed through, Lochte destroyed the field, winning in 4mins 05.18sec – more than three and a half seconds clear of the other seven swimmers. The margin of victory was awe-inspiring, but perhaps less of a shock than the fact that two other competitors also got the better of Phelps.

Thiago Pereira of Brazil claimed silver in 4:06.86, and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino was third in 4:06.94. Phelps floated in a disconsolate fourth in 4:09.28.

It was the first swimming final of the Games, and it is doubtful whether there will be a bigger shock. Not because of the quality shown by Lochte – that was never in doubt – but because of the almost humdrum nature of Phelps’s effort. Time will tell whether this performance was merely a blip, but on this early evidence it is tempting to suggest that we have seen the best of Phelps.

“I felt great for the first 200m, but after that it just didn’t happen,” Phelps said. “I was lucky to get in [the final]. I had the chance to get off on a good note, but didn’t do it.”

The men’s 400m freestyle was historic in its own way too, as Sun Yang became the first ever Chinese man to win swimming gold. Sun was led at the halfway stage by South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan, whose defence of his Olympic title had almost ended in the morning when he was initially disqualified for a technical offence. Reinstated after an appeal, Park went out very strongly, but he could not live with Sun. Scotland’s former Commonwealth champion David Carry came seventh. It was a fine achievement by the Aberdonian, reaching his first individual final in his third and last Olympics at the age of 30.

Carry’s fellow-Scot Robbie Renwick, who went into these Games with a world ranking in the event of seventh, did not qualify from the heats. Renwick has the chance to make amends quickly, as he goes in the 200m freestyle heats this morning.

In the 100m breastroke, both Michael Jamieson and Craig Benson had qualified from the heats in yesterday’s morning session, but were unable to make it through from last night’s semi-finals. Swimming in heat two after Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa set a new Olympic record in the first heat, Jamieson came third and Benson sixth – but such had been the speed of the first heat that even that third place was not enough to get into the top eight who will contest the final tonight.

However, Great Britain’s Ellen Gandy is through to the final of the women’s 100m butterfly, having qualified seventh fastest. But fellow-Englishwoman Fran Halsall was eliminated from an event in which Dana Vollmer headed the qualifiers with an Oympic record.

There was another Olympic record in the final event of the evening, the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, won by Australia. The Team GB quartet, which included Caitlin McClatchey, came fifth.