DUBAI: Ryan Lochte has set two world records on consecutive nights and the American is just getting warmed up. “There were a lot of mistakes I made and I can go a lot faster, I know that,” Lochte said Friday after adding the 200-meter individual medley mark to his 400 record a day earlier at the short-course world championships. While he may have not been completely satisfied with it, Lochte's latest victory was a dominant display. He touched in 1 minute, 50.08 seconds to improve on the previous mark set by South Africa's Darian Townsend by an astounding 1.5 seconds. Lochte finished more than two bodylengths ahead of his closest competitor, Markus Rogan of Austria, who was 2.82 seconds behind. Another American, Tyler Clary, was third, 3.48 back. Lochte's two marks represent the only individual world records set in 2010 – either in short- or long-course – after high-tech bodysuits were banned at the beginning of the year. By contrast, nearly every record in swimming was broken multiple times the previous two years. Two other world records in relays were set the past two days. Lochte took bronze medals in the 200 and 400 IMs at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which were both won by Michael Phelps, who is skipping this meet. Also Friday, Cielo showed a return to form with a dominant display in the 50 freestyle. Cielo clocked 20.51 seconds in the two-lap race, 0.30 ahead of French rival Frederick Bousquet, with Josh Schneider of the United States third, 0.37 behind. After winning the 50 in Beijing, Cielo then swept both sprints – the 50 and 100 – at last year's long-course worlds in Rome. But he failed to win over both distances at the Pan Pacific championships in August, where American sprinter Nathan Adrian prevailed. Adrian failed to reach the final in the 50, and Cielo now enters as an even bigger favorite for the 100 Sunday. In the women's 100 free, Dutch sprinters Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Femke Heemskerk finished 1-2, relegating American standout Natalie Coughlin to third.Kromowidjojo clocked a championship-record 51.45, Heemskerk finished 0.73 behind and Coughlin was 0.80 back. Paul Biedermann of Germany won the 400 free in 3:37.06 – more than four seconds off his world record last year in a bodysuit. Nikita Lobintsev of Russia took silver, 0.78 behind, and Olympic 1,500 champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third, 1.11 back.
