USA star Ryan Lochte swam an exhausting three events and won two golds at the world championships on Friday as he backed up victory in the 200m backstroke with gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
In the backstroke final, Lochte clocked 1min 53.79sec, while Poland's Radoslaw Kawecki set a new European record at 0.45 back with Tyler Clary, the Olympic champion, taking bronze at 0.85 adrift.
The 28-year-old Lochte swam a total of three races on Friday evening, following his backstroke victory by qualifying as the fastest from the 100m butterfly semi-finals an hour later before swimming the second leg of the relay -- all within two hours.
"I survived. I wasn't really thinking about the triple at all. I was just focusing on it one race at a time," said Lochte, whose golden brace leaves him with 15 titles -- including three at Barcelona -- from world championships dating back to Montreal in 2005.
"I don't know anyone in swimming that has done a triple in one night. No matter what the outcome was in the first and second race, I had to pull it together for the team in the relay."
Despite his heroics, Lochte admitted he had pushed through the pain barier for his country.
"It was so painful. I don't want to do that again," he said.
The 21-year-old Kawecki, who won the short-course world title in 2012, swam a personal best behind Lochte in the backstroke final.
"I am very happy with the result and to get a personal best," he said.
"I did not expect to come in second place but I felt like I had everything under control during the race."
Having put on 13kgs on his break from training after London 2012, Olympic 200m backstroke champion Clary said bronze was acceptable with a view to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
"I came into training camp after the Olympics (13kg) overweight, so the celebration was ongoing, you could say," Clary admitted.
"I didn't even really feel like myself again in the water until after the world championship trials so that is a good base to start from and I certainly would rather have this result now than in Rio."
He added: "There isn't more pressure, it's more recognition as an Olympic champion.
"There are a lot of guys looking at you, but swimming is a non-contact sport it's not as if anyone can knock you off your game so you just need to swim your own race."
