At the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia on Saturday, Katie Ledecky smashed another world record and Michael Phelps won his first individual gold medal since coming out of retirement.
US teenager Ledecky set the first world record of the Gold Coast meet, shaving almost half a second off the 400m freestyle mark she set at this month’s US Championships.
The 17-year-old schoolgirl clocked 3 minutes, 58.37 seconds to eclipse her previous mark by 0.49 seconds.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a great feeling. It never really gets old,” Ledecky said of her latest world record-breaking swim. “I knew I could be right where I was at nationals, or slightly better. I’m really pleased with that.”
While it was Ledecky’s fourth gold medal of the championship, it was Olympic legend Phelps’s second win, but first individual gold in taking out the 100m butterfly from teammate Ryan Lochte.
Phelps, 29, who was a member of the US’ winning 4x200m freestyle relay on Friday, shaded Lochte by 0.38 seconds in winning the butterfly event in 51.29 seconds, adding to his haul of international titles just four months into his comeback.
“It’s definitely feels good to have that sort of confidence back to be able to do it in an individual event,” said Phelps, who has now won 15 golds over four Pan Pacs meets. “What it does is guarantee me a spot on the world championship team next summer, which is the biggest and most important thing. I know there is a lot [that] can happen in a year with training, I’m looking forward to it, it’s a building year for me.”
Phelps, an 18-time Olympic champion, said he still has a few things to iron out after ending a near two-year retirement after the London Olympics.
“After just getting back in the water and going through the ups and downs, it’s still some of the small things like hitting the walls like I want to at a high speed,” he said. “That’s something that I have to work on over the next year and really nail it.”
Ledecky holds the world records in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle to make her the first woman since US distance great Janet Evans to hold all three records at the same time.
Ledecky’s win the 400m final was her fourth gold medal of the Pan Pacs after wins in the 200m and 800m freestyle and as part of the US 4x200m freestyle relay.
“I have some long-term goals. We’re not quite there yet, but we’ll get there,” she said.
Ledecky is to race in the 1,500m freestyle event today, the last day of the meet, as she chases five gold medals.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but