Hungary’s gold medal victor Katinka Hosszu smiles after setting a new World Record in the women’s 200m individual medley final at the Swimming World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Monday, August 3, 2015.
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The 18-year-old Ledecky led all the way and was under her world-record pace until the next-to-last lap, touching in 3 minutes, 59.13 seconds to set a championship mark.
While Hosszu has a long swimming resume (perhaps the longest we’ve ever seen in the sport by a woman), to this point it lacked the two hallmarks of any swimmer’s career: an Olympic gold medal and a long course World Record. “It gets more people behind swimming so that’s awesome”.
American Maya Di Rado was fourth and teammate Melanie Margalis finished seventh.
Britain’s Ross Murdoch took bronze at 0.57secs back.
“When I touched I kind of thought that I had it”, she said.
She was the fastest qualifier into Tuesday s 100m backstroke final by clocking 58.56secs.
“With 25 metres to go he was still out in front but I have trained for moments like this”.
“It was hard. A pile of bricks came down on me in the last five meters”, Van der Burgh said.
Peaty broke van der Burgh’s 2012 world mark earlier this year to become the first man in history under 58 seconds in the event.
The Chinese giant is still almost three seconds from Paul Biedermann’s world record, set by the German in 2009 before neoprene suits were banned, and it remains his goal a year from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
France were also able to claim success in the pool as Florent Manaudou sprinted to victory in the men’s 50m butterfly final after touching home in 22.97, with Brazil’s Nicholas Santos ending up as the runner-up in 23.09.
Franklin finished fifth overall, almost a second behind top-seed Emily Seebohm of Australia, who blasted the second semi with a 58.56.
China s long-distance expert Sun Yang had to settle for second in his 200m freestyle semi-final heat behind 15-time world gold medallist Ryan Lochte of the USA as both qualified for Tuesday s final. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and Konrad Czerniak of Poland tied for bronze in 23.15.
Yuliya Efimova, competing in her first major competition since her doping ban ended in February, topped qualification for the women’s 100m breaststroke final.
Ledecky, who also holds the 800m record, hinted she could yet send more records tumbling in Tuesday s 1500m final.
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Australia’s Mitchell Larkin was the fastest into the men’s 100m backstroke final on Tuesday.
