Smart move
Daring tactics land golden girl another swim medal
LAUREN BOYLE should be swimming for silver again next year at the Olympics – but that won’t dampen her enthusiasm.
The veteran New Zealand freestyle specialist won her second silver medal of the world championships meet in Kazan, Russia, yesterday behind teen sensation Katie Ledecky of the United States in the women’s 800m final.
Ledecky smashed her own world record as she claimed her fourth gold medal of the champs and she is already a massively prohibitive favourite to win freestyle gold over the 200m, 400m and 800m at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But Boyle, who worked out a race plan that virtually excluded Ledecky, said she was happy with her lot.
‘‘It’s not a great mindset to go in knowing or thinking that she’s going to be really far ahead,’’ she said of the 18-year-old who was more than 10 seconds quicker than Boyle. ‘‘But in past events that has happened, so I don’t lose confidence if that happens – if that makes sense.
‘‘For me, I usually swim my best races when I’m totally involved with my own race and I’m not really focusing on what anybody else is doing.’’
It was Boyle’s fifth world championship gong – she won silver in the 1500m freestyle earlier this week and three bronze in Barcelona in 2013 – meaning the 27-yearold Aucklander now has half of the 10 medals New Zealand swimmers have won at the championships over more than 40 years.
The result also gave Boyle another massive boost towards the 2016 Rio Olympics, with the 800m the longest race on the women’s Games programme.
Ledecky smashed her own world record when winning in eight minute 07.39 seconds – nearly 2 seconds inside her previous mark – and became the first person to win four freestyle titles from 200m to 1500m at the same world championship.
‘‘What Katie Ledecky is doing for the sport is amazing and I think it helps all of us swimmers open our minds to what is possible,’’ Boyle said.
‘‘I was really happy with my performance, it’s fantastic to get another medal – especially silver and also really with a personal best time for me and a New Zealand record, which is amazing.’’
Boyle led the rest of the field by 2 seconds at the halfway stage, pursued by Jaz Carlin (Great Britain) – who beat her at last year’s Commonwealth Games at this distance – Jessica Ashwood (Australia) and Lotte Friis (Denmark).
Boyle held on to claim silver in 8:17.65, taking a a second off her own New Zealand record while also landing the Oceania record – with Carlin taking bronze in 8:18:15. Boyle’s race plan was hatched with her coach Denis Cotterell at their Gold Coast training base with help from New Zealand coach Graeme Laing.
‘‘I knew that I’d have to go out pretty strong to stay ahead of some of the other girls in the race,’’ she said.