Shanghai, July 31: Ryan Lochte easily advanced with the fastest time in the preliminaries of the 400-meter individual medley at the world championships, putting the American in position to win his fifth gold medal.
Lochte led all the way in his heat and touched in 4 minutes, 11.89 seconds Sunday -- 1.79 seconds ahead of Yuya Horihata of Japan, who was second-quickest at 4:13.68.
American Tyler Clary qualified fourth at 4:14.98 for the final on the last night of the eight-day meet.Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, the 2005 champion and bronze medalist two years ago in Rome, finished 22nd and failed to make the eight-man final.AP
