Dominant Ledecky claims sixth 1,500m freestyle world title
Singapore
Swimming great Katie Ledecky had no competition on her way to claiming a sixth women's 1,500 metre freestyle title at the World Aquatics championships in Singapore on Tuesday.
The Olympic champion clocked 15 minutes 26.44 seconds to beat defending champion Simona Quadarella of Italy by 5.35 seconds.
Ledecky was on world record pace early on before landing the fifth-fastest performance in history, six seconds of her record 15:20.48.
The American holds 24 of the top 25 times in history in the event, with Quadarella now the second best athlete over the distance with her European record 15:31.79.
Australia's Lani Pallister, who was Ledecky's top challenger in the early stages before fading, had to settle for bronze.
'I'm happy with the time and happy with the swim. I love this race, lots of memories over the years,' Ledecky said after her 22nd career world title.
In the women's 100m backstroke, Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown powered through the last few metres to win the duel against Regan Smith and set a new competition record.
The Australian clocked 57.16 seconds, just three-hundredths outside Smith's world record, as she beat the American by 0.19 seconds to take gold. Smith's team-mate Katharine Berkoff completed the podium.
'It's always really nerve-wrecking, but it's paid off. A good start for the rest of the week,' McKeown said.
German Elendt with surprise gold Germany's Anna Elendt couldn't believe when she looked at the screen and saw she had stunned the top seeds for women's 100m breaststroke gold.
Top favourite Tang Qianting was set to take the win, but Elendt's effort in the final metres paid off as she moved up from fourth to first.
Tang had to settle for bronze as she was also overtaken by American Kate Douglass.
It's a second gold for Germany in the swimming events, the other one was claimed by Lukas Märtens in the men's 400m freestyle.
'I'm still speechless. When I saw I was in lane one, I thought: If you have a lane, you have a chance,' Elendt said.
Men's events Olympic champion David Popovic added another medal to his cabinet with gold in the men's 200m freestyle.
The top favourite from Romania clocked 1:43.53 minutes, beating American Luke Hobson by 0.31. Bronze went to Japan's Tatsuya Murasa.
Popovic made up more than half a second on Hobson on the last 50m to reclaim the world title he first won in 2022.
Defending champion Hwang Sun-woo of South Korea missed out on the podium and finished fourth.
The men's 100m backstroke saw a very close fight, but South Africa's Pieter Coetze prevailed to take his first gold medal at a major event with an African record 51.85 seconds - only five hundredths separating him from second-placed Italian Thomas Ceccon.
Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of France was another two-hundredths back to claim bronze.
'I can't say it was expected, but happy it went well,' Coetze said after beating Olympic champion Ceccon.
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