France world 4x100 medley champions as US disqualified

Barcelona, Aug 5 (IANS)

Camille Lacourt, Giacomo Perez-Dortona, Fabien Gilot and Jeremy Stravius of France celebrate after the USA are disqualified and they are instated as winners of the Swimming Men’s Medley 4x100m Relay Final on day sixteen of the 15th FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi on August 4, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

There was drama in the men’s 4×100 metres medley relay here when France were crowned as the new world champions following a false start by the US team.

Although the American quartet of Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Ryan Lochte and Nathan Adrian finished comfortably ahead of the French and Australian teams, who had looked destined for silver and bronze, the Americans were disqualified as Cordes was judged to have dived in before Grevers had touched the board Sunday, reports Xinhua.

The disqualification was especially hard on Lochte, who had swum a magnificent third leg in the butterfly to put the Americans into a decisive lead, and it denied him what would have been a 16th World Championship gold.

As it is, the French quartet of Camille Lacourt, who had won the 50 metres backstroke earlier in the night, Giacomo Perez-Dortona, Jeremy Stravius and Fabian Gilot can look back on a hugely successful world championships in which they have won three gold medals as a team.