American teen Ledecky wins 5th gold with world-record swim

Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin has said that she is “just going to go for it” in the final of the women’s 800m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Russian Federation.

It did not escape notice Saturday morning, following preliminary heats for the men’s 1,500 free, that Ledecky’s time of 15:27.71 in the women’s qualifying five days earlier – a world record she wasn’t really trying to set – would have ranked her 28th of the 45 men attempting to qualify for the finals.

America’s Katie Ledecky smashed her own world record in the women’s 800 metres freestyle to earn her fifth gold medal of the global Swimming Federation (FINA) World Aquatics Championships, as the penultimate day of competition took place at the Kazan Arena.

This victory adds to her wins this week in the 200, 400 and 1500-meter races.

The 18-year-old high school graduate blitzed her way to gold in a time of 8min 7.39sec, setting her third world record of the week and the 10th world record of a glittering career. Ledecky’s 100-meter time is a little bit further away from Britta Steffen’s record – about 2.5 seconds back – but Ledecky has been improving that mark by about 1 second per year even without it being one of her main races.

“I couldn’t be happier with how that swim went or how the whole meet has gone”, beamed Ledecky.

She finished less than a second behind silver medallist Lauren Boyle of New Zealand and her bronze also took Great Britain’s tally to a record nine medals at a World Championships with less than a year to go until the 2016 Rio Olympics. “After that defeat I would break my arm before I lose tonight”. “It got tough around the 550m mark, but I knew I could finish hard”.

“It’s very inspiring for me”.

“I’m learning how to control my emotions”. “But I’m honestly really happy with that”. I didn’t want to be fourth again – it really hurt. His time of 21.19 is fastest in the world this year.

It was sweet revenge as Le Clos, the 200m Olympic champion, lost his world crown on the wall over the same distance to Cseh in Wednesday’s final, when he was edged out by just 0.20.

Manadou had already won the men’s 50m butterfly title and raw power secured him gold here, with Nathan Adrian, of the United States, taking silver in 21.52 seconds.

Defending champion Missy Franklin, of the United States, had led at 100m, but Seebohm timed her finale to perfection to snatch the lead in the final 25m, striking gold in 2:05.81.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary completed third.

With Brazil’s defending champion Cesar Cielo forced to return home with a shoulder injury, compatriot Bruno Fratus took up the mantle to claim bronze.

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden won the 50 butterfly, a non-Olympic event, in 24.96.