Gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky of the US, poses on the podium with her medal during the award ceremony of the women’s 1,500m freestyle in the FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, yesterday.
Barcelona: US teenager Katie Ledecky obliterated the world record in the women’s 1,500m freestyle final yesterdayy to win her second gold at the swimming world championships in Barcelona.
The 16-year-old Ledecky, who was neck-and-neck with Denmark’s Lotte Friis for most of the race, accelerated away in the final stages to clock a new world record of 15mins 36.53secs, knocking just under six seconds off the previous mark set in 2009.
In an extraordinary final, Friis also finished faster than the previous world record of 15mins 42.54secs set by Jessica Hardy of the USA, as Ledecky and the Dane pushed a ferocious pace from the start.
“I knew we were swimming very fast and I figured that whoever was going to come out on top was going to beat the world record,” said Ledecky, who won the 400m freestyle final on Sunday night and is the reigning 800m freestyle Olympic champion.
Teenage US swimming star Missy Franklin claimed her second gold in the women’s 100m backstroke.
Franklin clocked 58.42secs in the final, just missing out on the four-year-old world record, with Australia’s Emily Seebohm 0.64sec adrift and Japan’s Aya Terekawa touching the wall 0.81sec behind.
Teenage Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte won the women’s 100m breaststroke gold with Russia’s Yuliya Efimova second and Jessica Hardy of the USA third.
Olympic champion Matt Grevers won the men’s 100 metres backstroke gold with David Plummer of the USA in second and France’s Jeremy Stravius third.
Grevers of the USA touched the wall at 52.93secs with Plummer just 0.19 adrift for silver and Stravius claimed bronze at 0.28 back.
Olympic champion Yannick Agnel added the men’s 200m freestyle world title to his growing collection at the swimming world championships as he demolished a powerful field. France’s Agnel clocked 1min 44.20secs, more than a second ahead of Conor Dwyer of the USA. REUTERS
