The US’ Katie Ledecky set a second world record in two days by shattering her own 1,500m freestyle record at the Pan Pacific Championships yesterday.
The 17-year-old schoolgirl smashed her record by almost 6 seconds with a time of 15 minutes, 28.36 seconds, to claim her fifth gold medal at the Gold Coast meet.
In June, Ledecky set the previous record in the 1,500 metres, a non-Olympic event, with a time of 15 minutes, 34.23 seconds.
Photo: AFP
On Saturday the teenager beat her 400m freestyle world record at the Gold Coast meet, clocking 3 minutes, 58.37 seconds to eclipse her previous mark by 0.49 seconds.
“I knew it was my last race of the meet and the last race of the season, and I had a really good season and I wanted to finish on a good note,” Ledecky said. “I didn’t want to walk away from the meet feeling that was just okay. So I just dug in deep over the last 50m.”
“It was probably one of my most painful races,” she added. “It was painful, but it pays off in the end, so I’m happy. I am really enjoying the journey and just enjoying each step, so hopefully there are a few steps left.”
Photo: AFP
Ledecky won the 200m, 400m 800m and 1,500m freestyle golds at the Pan Pacs and was also part of the US women’s winning 4x200m freestyle relay team.
“I would say it’s tied with the 400m world record, but the 1,500m is not a huge priority of mine because it’s not an Olympic event, so it’s just this year and next year [worlds] that I will probably swim it,” she said. “It’s not a huge priority of my training so I didn’t really know what to expect. But the mile [1,500m] is certainly one of my favorite events, and it’s the last day of the meet.”
Ledecky beat New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle by more than 27 seconds in winning the 1,500m gold, and was well under world record pace during the middle stages of the 30 lap final.
In other women’s results on the final day, Maya Dirado of the US won the 200m individual medley in 2 minutes, 9.93 seconds; Cate Campbell of Australia won the 50m freestyle in 23.96 seconds; Kanako Watanabe of Japan won the 200m breaststroke in 2 minutes, 21.41 seconds; and Australia won the 4x100m medley relay in 3 minutes, 55.49 seconds.
In men’s finals, Ryan Cochrane of Canada won the 800m freestyle in 7 minutes, 45.39 seconds; Kosuke Hagino of Japan won the 200m individual medley in 1 minute, 56.02 seconds, with Michael Phelps of the US seconds; Bruno Fratus of Brazil won the 50m freestyle in 21.44 seconds; Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan won the 200m breaststroke in 2 minutes, 8.57 seconds; the US team of Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Phelps and Nathan Adrian won the 4x100m medley relay in 3 minutes, 29.94 seconds, with Japan second and Australia third.
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