Ryan Lochte won the 400m medley gold on Saturday as Olympic superstar Michael Phelps was shut out of the medals in the first swimming final of the London Games.
The race was expected to be a duel between 14-time Olympic gold medallist Phelps and Lochte -- who settled for bronze in the event four years ago in Beijing -- as Phelps made it one of his eight golds.
Instead it was Lochte who won in 4min 05.18sec, comfortably in front of Brazilian Thiago Pereira in 4:08.86 with Japan\'s Kosuke Hagino claiming bronze with an Asian record of 4:08.94.
Phelps was fourth in 4:09.28 -- the first time since he was a 15-year-old at his first Olympics in Sydney that he failed to medal in an Olympic race. He was fifth in the 200m fly in Sydney.
In the interim, Phelps had won six gold and two bronze in Athens, and his vaunted eight golds in eight events in Beijing.
But Phelps was in trouble from the time he barely scraped into the final, putting himself in the unfavorable outside lane eight. He had never been seeded lower than fourth in an Olympic final.
He never led, and once Lochte had gained the lead from South African Chad le Clos by the end of the opening butterfly leg, the race appeared to be his to lose.
Phelps had moved into second at the end of the butterfly, and held onto it during the backstroke leg, but as Lochte began to extend his lead Phelps was locked in a battle with Pereira and Hagino that he was destined to lose.
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