Ledecky grabs 400m freestyle for third win
CHICAGO: Five-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky won her fourth US 400m freestyle title at the US Swim Championships while Kevin Cordes set an American record in the 100 breaststroke.
Ledecky, who had already won the 200m and 800m free titles this week, captured her third crown of the meet in 3:58.44 on Friday, beating runner-up Leah Smith by 5.33 seconds and her old meet record by .42 of a second.
In the last day of the meet, a qualifying event for July’s World Championships in Budapest, Ledecky will seek another title in the 1,500m free.
Ledecky captured 200m, 400m and 800m free Olympic gold last year in Rio – defending the 800m crown she won in London – and helped the US women’s 4x200m relay win as well.
Ledecky won the world 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle titles and shared in a 4x200m free relay win in 2013 in Barcelona then defended those crowns in 2015 at Russia while adding the 200m free to her trophy haul.
Cordes took the 100m breast in 58.74, .37 ahead of Cody Miller, to complete a US breaststroke title sweep after taking the 50m and 200m earlier in the meet.
Cordes broke the old American record of 58.87 set by 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Miller last year in Rio.
Matt Grevers won his fifth title of the meet by taking the 100m backstroke in 52.71, edging reigning Olympic champion and world record-holder Ryan Murphy who was second in 53.02.
Reigning Olympic champion Lilly King won the women’s 100m breast title in a meet-record 1:04.95 a night after setting an American record in the 50m breast.
Kathleen Baker, the Rio Olympic 100m back runner-up, won the US crown in a meet-record 58.57 while Zane Grothe won the men’s 400m free in 3:44.43. – AFP