American Kate Douglass reclaims 50m freestyle world record during Pan Pacific heats
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Kate Douglass clocked a record 23.49sec in the heats of the Pan Pacific Championships on Aug 15, setting up a tantalising showdown with former record-holder Gretchen Walsh.
PHOTO: AFP
- Kate Douglass set a new women's 50m freestyle world record of 23.49 seconds at the Pan Pacific Championships, breaking Gretchen Walsh's previous record of 23.55 seconds.
- Douglass also swam the second-fastest 100m freestyle in history with a time of 51.69 seconds, just 0.01 seconds shy of the world record.
- The 50m freestyle final on August 15 is highly anticipated, with Walsh and Australian Meg Harris posting the second and third fastest times in the heats, promising an exciting race.
AI generated
LOS ANGELES - Kate Douglass shattered the women’s 50m freestyle world record on Aug 15, clocking 23.49sec in the heats at the Pan Pacific Championships to set a tantalising showdown with former record-holder Gretchen Walsh.
Douglass improved on the world mark of 23.55sec that fellow-American Walsh set on June 28 at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.
Walsh’s mark had improved on the world record of 23.59 that Douglass herself had set on June 19 - and Douglass said that she believed she could still improve technically.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting that,” Douglass told Swimming World magazine. “I still think there are things I could clean up.”
Douglass’ impressive performance came little more than 12 hours after she delivered the second-fastest 100m freestyle in history swimming the lead-off leg on the United States’ victorious 4x100m free relay.
She touched the wall in 51.69sec - one one-hundredth outside the 100m free world record set by Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands in June.
“I think barely missing a world record last night kind of fueled me a little bit, and I know I wanted to go in and break the world record today - and I did it this morning,” Douglass said.
“I am more rested than when I broke the world record the first time, and I have been amped up.”
The 50m free final later on Aug 15 promises fireworks.
Walsh, swimming in the last heat after Douglass broke her record, touched in 23.78, the second-quickest of the morning.
Australian Meg Harris, who ran down Walsh to win the 100m free on Aug 13, was third-fastest in 24.22.
Douglass is also slated for another individual swim on the final night of the four-day meeting, which brings together top swimmers from non-European nations.
The American, who is the second-fastest performer in history in the 200m breaststroke, qualified second-fastest for that final behind Japan’s Kotomi Kato. AFP
