Stephanie Rice taking inspiration from American swimmer Ryan Lochte to reclaim glory

Beijing, July 30 (ANI): Australian Swimmer Stephanie Rice is taking inspiration from in-form American star Ryan Lochte to give her best in Sunday's 400m individual medley at the World Championships.

The triple Olympic gold medallist was the fastest qualifier for the 200IM final before finishing fourth, and fifth on Thursday night's 200m butterfly final, the Herald Sun reports.

After watching American star Ryan Lochte break the world record in the 200IM, the first mark to fall since the farcical 2009 world titles, Rice said: "It was so great for me to see Lochte's swim and see how fast he went and that's sort of made me excited to race."

"Hopefully I can gain a lot of confidence from that swim into my 400. I'm pretty confident, I think it was good for me to make that (200m butterfly) final. I was really glad that I scraped in because that's one more night that I'm at the pool and I'm racing and getting up and going through the momentum of racing," she added.

Rice, who won three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, is currently ranked fourth in the 400IM category following Spain's Mireia Belmonte, China's Xuanxu Lu, and Britain's Hannah Miley. (ANI)