Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom broke the women’s 100m butterfly record on Sunday, while Sun Yang and Katie Ledecky retained their 400m freestyle titles at the world championships.
China’s Sun, the reigning 400m, 800m and 1,500m world champion and record holder over the mile, clocked 3 minutes, 42.58 seconds to win his final by more than a second as Britain’s James Guy took silver.
Sun is still nearly three seconds off Paul Biedermann’s world record, set by the German in 2009 before neoprene suits were banned, and it remains his goal a year from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Photo: AFP
“Of course, it was broken in the precious swimsuit period, so now if we want to break this record, it will take more effort, but I see it as a goal on the road to Rio,” Sun said.
US teenager Ledecky, a triple world-record holder, built a commanding lead in her final and came within a second of her own world record in the event, but had to make do with a winning time of 3 minutes, 59.13 seconds, a new championship record.
“This gets the momentum going and I couldn’t be happier,” said the 18-year-old, who has only just graduated from high school. “It’s a swim I can be really happy with.
“It’s very flattering and a great honor for me that people seem to hope or expect a world record every time I swim, because I guess that is based on what I have done in the past,” she said.
“That’s a pretty neat thing for me,” she added. “You guys keep writing what you’re writing and I’ll keep doing what I keep doing.”
There was a surprise early in the evening as Sjostrom broke the world record in her semi-final on only the second swim of the night to set herself up for the 100m butterfly final.
In the men’s 200m freestyle heats yesterday, Taiwan’s Huang Yen-hsin swam 1 minute, 52.43 seconds, 59th-fastest, while Sun was fastest in 1 minute, 46 seconds.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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