London, England – Tyler Clary, the U.S. teammate critical of Michael Phelps' training, won the men's 200-meter backstroke Thursday night while defending Olympic champion Ryan Lochte faded to third.
Clary overtook Lochte in the last 50 meters and broke his teammate's Olympic record with a time of 1 minute, 53.41 seconds -- .37 seconds ahead of silver medal winner Ryosuke Irie of Japan.
Lochte, who was later beaten by Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley, led for the first 150 meters but finished .53 seconds behind Clary.
"I had a pretty good sense that I was behind those guys at the 150 and I knew it was going to take something incredible to get past those two," Clary said. "The fact that I was able to get my hand on the wall first is an unreal feeling. I'm so happy right now."
Clary's first Olympic medal comes weeks after he had to apologize to Phelps over comments he made saying his U.S. teammate doesn't train as hard has he should.
In an interview with a California newspaper Clary said he saw a "lack of preparation" in Phelps in the past and watched "somebody that has basically been asking to get beat for the longest time."
Phelps said Clary came to him the next day to bury the hatchet and told him the comments were taken out of context. Phelps said an apology wasn't necessary.
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