# Swimming at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley competition of the swimming events at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships took place July 27 and 28. The heats and semifinals took place July 27 and the final was held July 28.
The two main contenders for the event were the reigning World Champion and world record holder Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, the reigning Olympic champion. The final was won by Lochte in a world record time 1:54.00, bettering his previous time of 1:54.10. Phelps finished in second place with a personal best time of 1:54.16. So emphatic was Lochte and Phelps performance, that third-place finisher László Cseh said, "The Americans are too good for me. Only Ryan can beat Michael, but I can improve myself and continue to swim faster."

## Record

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship record were as follows.
| | Name | Nation | Time | Location | Date |
| World record Championship record | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:54.10 | Rome | July 30, 2009 |
The following record was established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | WR | CR |
| July 28, 2011 | Final | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:54.00 | WR | CR |

## Results
### Heats

47 swimmers participated in 6 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:57.82 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | Dávid Verrasztó | Hungary | 1:58.69 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 7 | Kenneth To | Australia | 1:59.02 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:59.04 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 5 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 1:59.22 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 2 | Yuya Horihata | Japan | 1:59.25 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 1 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 1:59.43 | Q, NR |
| 8 | 5 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:59.48 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 2 | Diogo Carvalho | Portugal | 1:59.51 | Q, NR |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 1:59.54 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | 5 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1.59.68 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 8 | Marcin Cieślak | Poland | 1:59.77 | Q, NR |
| 13 | 6 | 5 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:59.80 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 6 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 1:59.97 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | 7 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.98 | Q |
| 16 | 6 | 6 | Jan David Schepers | Germany | 1:59.99 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 8 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 2:00.03 | |
| 18 | 5 | 2 | Wang Shun | China | 2:00.12 | |
| 19 | 6 | 3 | Joe Roebuck | Great Britain | 2:00.42 | |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Raphaël Stacchiotti | Luxembourg | 2:00.87 | NR |
| 21 | 3 | 2 | Andrew Ford | Canada | 2:00.92 | |
| 22 | 5 | 3 | Markus Deibler | Germany | 2:00.99 | |
| 23 | 3 | 4 | Marcin Tarczyński | Poland | 2:01.14 | |
| 24 | 3 | 7 | Taki Mrabet | Tunisia | 2:01.44 | |
| 25 | 5 | 7 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 2:01.60 | |
| 26 | 3 | 3 | Martin Liivamägi | Estonia | 2:01.88 | |
| 27 | 2 | 6 | Jung Won-Yong | South Korea | 2:02.50 | |
| 28 | 2 | 5 | Aleksey Derlyugov | Uzbekistan | 2:03.30 | |
| 29 | 2 | 4 | Pavel Sankovich | Belarus | 2:03.52 | |
| 30 | 3 | 8 | Nikša Roki | Croatia | 2:03.89 | |
| 31 | 6 | 8 | Federico Turrini | Italy | 2:04.35 | |
| 32 | 2 | 3 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 2:04.38 | |
| 33 | 3 | 6 | Zhang Fenglin | China | 2:04.49 | |
| 34 | 4 | 6 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 2:04.57 | |
| 35 | 1 | 4 | Morad Berrada | Morocco | 2:06.90 | NR |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | Hocine Haciane | Andorra | 2:07.14 | |
| 37 | 1 | 1 | Irakli Bolkvadze | Georgia | 2:07.29 | |
| 38 | 2 | 1 | Vasilii Danilov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:08.68 | |
| 39 | 1 | 6 | Rafael Ferracuti | El Salvador | 2:09.16 | |
| 40 | 2 | 8 | Branden Whitehurst | U.S. Virgin Islands | 2:09.58 | |
| 41 | 2 | 7 | Saeed Ashtiani | Iran | 2:09.81 | |
| 42 | 1 | 5 | Pavol Jelenak | Slovakia | 2:10.15 | |
| 43 | 1 | 7 | Eli Ebenezer Wong | Northern Mariana Islands | 2:10.18 | |
| 44 | 1 | 2 | Edwin Angjeli | Albania | 2:10.27 | NR |
| 45 | 2 | 2 | Ensar Hajder | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2:11.99 | |
| 46 | 1 | 8 | Paul Elaisa | Fiji | 2:20.73 | |
| | 5 | 1 | Alexander Tikhonov | Russia | | DSQ |
| | 3 | 5 | Dinko Jukić | Austria | | DNS |

### Semifinals

The semifinals were held at 19:24.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:56.74 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.26 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Yuya Horihata | Japan | 1:59.47 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 1:59.49 | |
| 5 | 8 | Jan David Schepers | Germany | 1:59.83 | |
| 6 | 2 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 2:00.04 | |
| 7 | 4 | Dávid Verrasztó | Hungary | 2:00.05 | |
| 8 | 7 | Marcin Cieślak | Poland | 2:01.65 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:57.66 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 1:57.74 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 4 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.27 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:58.50 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | Kenneth To | Australia | 1:59.17 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 1:59.51 | |
| 7 | 8 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.67 | |
| 8 | 2 | Diogo Carvalho | Portugal | 1:59.80 | |

### Final

The final was held at 18:13.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:54.00 | WR |
| | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.16 | |
| | 3 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:57.69 | |
| 4 | 7 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:57.79 | |
| 5 | 6 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 1:58.14 | |
| 6 | 2 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:59.00 | |
| 7 | 1 | Kenneth To | Australia | 1:59.26 | |
| 8 | 8 | Yuya Horihata | Japan | 1:59.52 | |