Lochte, Soni win more swimming gold

SHANGHAI, July 29 (UPI) -- Ryan Lochte won his third individual gold medal and fellow American Rebecca Soni her second Friday at the 2011 World Swimming Championships.

Lochte also teamed with Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay and Ricky Berens in winning the 4x200-meter freestyle relay for the United States.

Lochte led from the start in taking the 200-meter backstroke in 1 minute, 52.96 seconds. He finished more than a second ahead of Japanese swimmer Ryosuke Irie, who took the silver in 1:51.11. American Tyler Clary was third, timed at 1:54.69.

Lochte earlier won the 200-meter freestyle and the 200-meter individual medley. He was also on the bronze medal-winning U.S. team in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

The United States took gold in Friday's men's relay, however. The team was third after Phelps' opening leg before taking over the race with Lochte making the final touch in 7:02.67 and the French team well back at 7:04.81 while China (7:05.67) was third.

Soni led wire-to-wire in claiming the women's 200-meter breaststroke, winning by three-quarters of a second. Her time was 2:21.47 with Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova second at 2:22.22 and Canadian Martha McCabe in third with a time of 2:24.81.

Soni also won the 100-meter breaststroke in the championships.

Dane swimmer Jeanette Ottesen and Belarus' Aliaksandra Herasimenia both finished in 53.45 and tied for the gold in the women's 100-meter freestyle. Dutch swimmer Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.66) was third.

The men's 200-meter breaststroke went to Hungary's Daniel Gyurta in 2:08.41, edging Japan's Kosuke Kitajima by 0.22 seconds. The bronze medal went to German swimmer Christian Vom Lehn, who finished in 2:09.06.