LONDON — Michael Phelps won a record 19th Olympic medal Tuesday when he joined forces with his US teammates to win the 4x200m freestyle relay at London's Aquatic Centre. Following his shock defeat in the 200 butterfly final an hour earlier, Phelps surpassed Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympian of all time. The win provided him with his 15th career gold medal to go with his two silver and two bronze medals. The Americans were overwhelming favorites to win the relay and the result was never in doubt after Ryan Lochte gave them the lead after the lead-off leg. Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens kept America's lead by the time Phelps dived in for the anchor leg and he brought them home in a combined time of six minutes, 59.70. Lochte captured his second gold medal in London after winning the 400m individual medley on the opening day of competition and the fifth of his career. France, which upset the Americans in the 4x100 freestyle final Saturday, took the silver medal while China grabbed the bronze after Sun Yang anchored them home. Phelps earlier flipped away his cap in disgust, having blown the race with a blunder at the end. Having led the entire way in the 200m butterfly, he tried to glide to the wall after his final stroke and was out-touched by Chad le Clos of South Africa. Phelps hung on the lane rope and buried his face in his hands, disgusted with himself for having squandered another chance to win his first gold of these Games. Le Clos won South Africa's second swimming gold of the Games in a time of 1 minute, 52.96 seconds. Phelps finished in 1:53.01, while Japan's Takeshi Matsuda took the bronze in 1:53.21. Four years ago, Milorad Cavic of Serbia thought he had the 100 fly in the bag after his final stroke. Phelps made the split-second decision to get in one more stroke and slammed into the wall — one-thousandth of a second ahead of Cavic. Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen survived a late challenge from Alicia Coutts to win the 200m individual medley final and collect her second gold medal at the London Olympics. Coutts finished just ahead of America's Caitlin Leverenz. Stephanie Rice was fourth while world record holder Ariana Kukors was fifth. In the first final of the night, American Allison Schmitt won the 200 freestyle with a dominating performance that left everyone else, including teammate Missy Franklin, battling for the other medals. Schmitt won with an Olympic-record of 1:53.61. France's Camille Muffat took silver in 1:55.58, almost a body length behind, while Bronte Barrett of Australia took the bronze over Franklin by a thousandth of a second. Barrett touched in 1:55.81. Franklin, who led after the first 50, was fourth in 1:55.82. Schmitt captured her first career gold medal, to go along with a silver in the 400 free and a bronze in the 4x100 free relay. The 17-year-old Franklin was denied her third medal of the Games, one night after her gutsy victory in the 100 backstroke earned her a tweet-out from pop star Justin Bieber. “I was trying to do the best that I can,” said Franklin, who still has four more events in London. “I was in an incredible heat. I really wanted to go best time.” China 3-for-3 in diving With stunning precision and dazzling athleticism, Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao led China to another gold medal off the big tower in women's 10m synchronized diving Tuesday. The Chinese were tied for second after the first round behind the British duo, which gave the home crowd a brief thrill, but no one could keep up with Chen and Wang. They never scored lower than 8.5 on any of their five dives, and even picked up a perfect 10 in the final round for perfect synchronization to win, going away with 368.40 points. Mexico's Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco took the silver with 343.32, while Canada's Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito claimed bronze with 337.62. — Agencies
