Swimming: Katie Ledecky sets short-course 800m freestyle world record
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Katie Ledecky reacting after setting a world short-course record in the women's 800m freestyle at the Fina Swimming World Cup on Saturday.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES - Katie Ledecky broke the 800m freestyle short-course world record on Saturday at the Fina World Cup meet in Indianapolis, her second world mark in a one-week span.
With the vociferous home crowd behind her, the American freestyle great clocked 7min 57.42sec, breaking the previous record of 7:59.34 set in 2013 by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte.
Canadian Summer McIntosh was second in 8:07.12 while another American, Leah Smith (8:12.01) rounded off the podium.
“Having the fans here cheering me on meant a lot,” Ledecky, who earned a US$10,000 (S$14,000) bonus, said in the Indianapolis Star.
“I think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself after last week.”
She had opened her season at the World Cup stop in Toronto last weekend, where she shattered the 1,500m freestyle short-course record
That sliced almost 10 seconds off the previous mark of 15:18.01 set by Germany’s Sarah Wellbrock in 2019 in Berlin.
Ledecky, owner of seven Olympic gold medals and 19 world titles, set the long-course world record in the 1,500m free of 15:20.48 in 2018 at Indianapolis.
She set the 800m free long-course world record of 8:04.79 at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and already owned the 28 fastest long-course 800m free times ever recorded. AFP
