Michael Phelps looks on during the Men's 4 x 100 Free Relay final on Sunday at the 14th FINA World Championships. The U.S. men finished a disappointing third, breaking a streak of six straight gold medals in major events. (Photo: Clive Rose/GettyImages)

Third place. And it wasn’t a contest.

What a way to kick off the swimming world championships, the final major tune-up for the 2012 London Summer Games. Ending a streak of six straight gold medals in major events, the U.S. men put forward a performance that left them, their coaches and teammates shell-shocked. And mad. And worse.

“Truly,” said Weber-Gale, “I feel sick about it.”

Moments after the U.S. women lost the lead – and earned the silver – on the final leg of their relay, the once-dominant U.S. men never led and finished in 3 minutes, 11.96 seconds at the Oriental Sports Center, behind the Australians (3:11.00) and French (3:11.14).

“It stinks,” Phelps said flatly moments after the race.

He then added later, “As Americans, we want to win everything we do. We want to be the best. . . We all know we can be better than that.”

The race featured a good start by Phelps, two substandard legs from Weber-Gale and Lezak, and a strong but not superb finish by Adrian. It also featured Ryan Lochte, a star of the ’09 world championship relay, relegated to only the preliminary round Sunday morning; his time then was not fast enough to get him onto the night’s squad.

But it looked like the United States could have used him. Weber-Gale misjudged his speed at the start, going out too slowly, and Lezak, a swimmer who relies on heavy rotation in his stroke , got pushed around like a buoy by the waves generated by the teams in front. Weber-Gale’s split (48.33) registered as the 18th fastest of the night; Lezak’s was tied for 17th.

Nearly 90 minutes after the race, Weber-Gale stood in front of reporters, shaking the bouquet he had received on the medal stand.

“It’s pretty embarrassing for me to go slow like that,” Weber-Gale said. “It’s very disappointing for me. Such a slow leg, I feel like it’s my fault we did poorly. I swam nowhere near my ability.”

U.S. men’s head coach Eddie Reese confessed he couldn’t quite believe what he saw on the results sheet. Australian James Magnussen beat Phelps on the opening leg, 47.49 to 48.08. Three men bested Weber-Gale on the second leg and five topped Lezak on the fourth. Two anchors, France’s Fabien Gilot and Italy’s Filippo Magnini, beat Adrian’s concluding 47.40.

“Those other countries did an amazing job,” said Lezak, famous for his gold-medal-saving anchor at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. “It takes 100-percent of a team doing best splits to win nowadays . . . Unfortunately, I was one of the average guys out there.”

As they assembled on the medal stand, the Americans watched the Australians celebrate. They muttered something else entirely.

“We just talked about not liking where we were standing,” Phelps said.

The U.S. women were considerably happier with their silver, despite losing it on the final leg as Dutch anchor Femke Heemskerk dropped the fastest time of the night (52.46) to overtake Dana Vollmer (53.27). The women trailed Netherlands (3:33.96), finishing in 3:34.47 as Germany took third in 3:36.05.

The women got a great start from Natalie Coughlin (54.09) and a jaw-dropping second leg from teen sensation Missy Franklin (52.99). Jessica Hardy faded at the end of her swim but held the lead with a 54.12. Vollmer, who had competed earlier in the 100 butterfly semifinals, could not fend off Heemskerk despite posting a personal best.

“Obviously, you never like diving in ahead and coming in second,” Vollmer said. “Personally, it lights a little bit of a fire for me.”

By night’s end, the U.S. team was just about burning up.

“We never like it,” Reese said. “We think we’re a country that, no matter how good we are in individual events, we always swim the relays . . .We had splits not at all like we thought they would be.”

Notes: Towson’s Katie Hoff emerged disappointed after the final of the 400, where she finished seventh in 4:08.22, more than six seconds behind winner Federica Pellegrini of Italy, who claimed first in 4:01.97. Hoff, a five-time world champion who narrowly made it into the final with the eighth-best qualifying time, said she had hoped to go 4:05 or better.

“It just wasn’t there,” she said. “That little extra-special something that you need to win a race, it wasn’t there. . . It’s obviously good to make a final, other than that. . . ask me tomorrow.”

Aaron Piersol set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke. (Michael Conroy, AP)

Locals’ Results

U.S. Swimming Championships Archives

INDIANAPOLIS, July 11 — The message from Aaron Peirsol: Stop taking my world records. For the second time this week at the U.S. swimming championships, Peirsol reclaimed a world record he had recently lost.

Saturday night, it happened in the 200-meter backstroke as Peirsol exploded over the last 100 meters to outswim Ryan Lochte and break his world record by a staggering 0.86 of a second.

Peirsol finished in 1 minute 53.08 seconds, as Lochte touched the wall in 1:54.21 and Tyler Clary in 1:54.53. North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s Nick Thoman got fourth in 1:54.83.

“I’m extremely elated,” Peirsol said.

Earlier this week, he took back the world record in the 100 backstroke, a mark he lost just over a week ago when a Spanish swimmer lowered it. Peirsol said his excitement about the victories was dampened knowing Japanese star Ryosuke Irie of Japan had swum faster in the 200 back in a similar high-tech suit (Irie’s record was disallowed because the suit was not approved).

“I feel like, if I do the race I can, he can’t catch me,” said Peirsol, who wore Arena’s X-Glide pants.

Jones Claims Berth
Earlier, 2008 Olympic relay team members Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones faced off in a two-man swim-off to decide the second-place finisher in Thursday’s 50 free. The pair had tied in that race.

Jones not only claimed a world championship berth with the victory, but he also broke Weber-Gale’s American record (21.47), touching the wall in 21.41 seconds; Weber-Gale came home in 21.70.
Jones said he switched high-tech suits, dumping the more acclaimed Jaked01, which he wore in Thursday’s 50 free final, for the older Speedo LZR.

Morris Places Second
In the men’s 1,500 freestyle, North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s Brennan Morris, 17, qualified for his first world championship team with his second-place finish in 15:13.47. Morris, the boyfriend of Katie Hoff, finished behind Jackson Wilcox, who touched the wall in 15:11.98.
In a time trial at the end of the night, Dara Torres, 42, lowered her American record in the 50 fly but missed the world record. She finished in 25.50.

Local Splashes
Arlington Aquatic Club’s Katherine Radloff, 20, finished third in the C final of the women’s 100 free in 3:56.08; in the C final of the 200 back, Andrew Relihan, 19, of the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club finished seventh in 2:05.18; Daniel Johnson, 21, of the University of Virginia was disqualified. North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s Austin Surhoff, 18, finished fourth in the B final in 2:01.19. In the C final of the 200 breast, Virginia’s John Azar finished eighth in 2:21.59.