Lochte crowns fine week

Six world records were washed away in a final deluge at the world short-course swimming championships yesterday as the count reached 18 after five hectic days.

Ryan Lochte, of the US, claimed his fourth world record and fourth gold medal but lost his 200 backstroke crown and was denied a winning exit as Russia upstaged the US in the concluding 4x100 medley relay.

But the US topped the medal table with 10 golds, with two on the last day from Nathan Adrian in the 100 freestyle and Lochte in the 100 individual medley.

Lochte, who had lost his 200 backstroke title and world record to Austria's Markus Rogan barely half an hour earlier, bounced back in the 100 medley and swept through in 51.15 seconds to slice 0.10 seconds from the world mark he had set in Saturday's semi-finals.

But Russians Stanislav Donets, Sergei Geybel, Evgeny Koroty-shkin and Alexander Sukhorukov grabbed the gold in the medley relay in three minutes 24.29 seconds to eclipse the US's 3:25.09 mark set in 2004.