Ryan Lochte won the 400m medley gold last night 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.

“I think I am in shock right now,” Lochte said.

“Going into these Games I knew I was capable of getting the win. I’m happy that I was able to do that.”

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 final. He was fifth in the 200m fly in Sydney.

In the interim, Phelps had won six gold and two bronze in Athens, and of course his vaunted eight golds in eight events in Beijing.

“It was just a crappy race,” Phelps said.

“I felt fine the first 200 and then I couldn’t really go the last 100. They swam a better race than me, they swam a smarter race than me and that is why they are on the podium.”

Phelps had moved into second at the end of the butterfly, and held on to 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.

The flop denied Phelps in his first bid to become the first male swimmer to win the same event at three successive Olympics. He’ll have a chance at trebles in the 100m and 200m butterfly and the 200m medley.

Later in the evening, Sun Yang became the first Chinese Olympic men’s swimming champion with victory in the 400m freestyle final in a near-world record time.

Sun, 20, swept past South Korean defending champion Park Tae-Hwan at the final turn and surged home to win gold in three minutes 40.14 seconds.

He missed out on Paul Biedermann’s 2009 world record by just 0.07secs and climbed on to the lane rope to punch the air in triumph.

Sun, the 1,500m freestyle world record holder, who trains in Australia under Grant Hackett’s former coach Denis Cotterell, was too strong for Park, who tumbled to his first defeat to the Chinese star in international competition.

Chinese youngster Ye Shiwen unleashed a withering burst to claim Olympic gold in the women’s 400m medley in world record time.

The 16-year-old overwhelmed American world champion Elizabeth Beisel to win the final in four minutes 28.43 seconds to cap a glittering night for China in the pool.

Ye put in a storming final freestyle leg to shatter the previous record of 4:29.45, set by Australian Stephanie Rice en route to gold at the Beijing Games four years ago.

So supercharged was Ye’s finish that she powered under the world record on the back of a 28.93sec final lap to leave her rivals in her wake.

Beisel finished with silver in 4:31.27 with Ye’s team-mate Li Xuanxu taking the bronze in 4:32.91.

Defending champion Rice trailed in sixth in 4:35.49 with British hope and world silver medallist Hannah Miley fifth in 4:34.17.

The other medal race saw Australia winning the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay ahead of the Netherlands with the US coming home third.

Medals table

Today’s highlights

• Olympic debutant James Magnussen leads Australia against the US in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay (final at 8.30 p.m.).

• World champion Beth Tweddle, looking to win a first gymnastics gold for the hosts, starts qualification (from 10.30 a.m.).

• Maria Sharapova gets her tennis campaign under way at Wimbledon (from 12.30 p.m.).