Ledecky wins 4th world title in 1,500 freestyle
Katie Ledecky led an American one-two and won her fourth 1,500meter freestyle title at the world swimming championships on Monday at Budapest, Hungary.
Ledecky never looked threatened and clocked 15:30.15 — just under 10 seconds more than her world record from 2018 — to finish 14.74 seconds ahead of Katie Grimes.
Ledecky punched the water in delight before waiting to embrace her teammate.
The 16-year-old Grimes is the second youngest medalist in the 1,500 at a worlds since Ledecky won it for the first time in 2013.
Ledecky also won in 2015 and 2017 and has at least four world titles in each of the 1,500, 800 and 400-meter freestyle events. Monday’s gold was her record-extending 17th world title.
Only compatriot Michael Phelps also won at least four gold medals in three different swimming events at the worlds, though he achieved it in just one individual event — five 200 butterfly titles — as well as two relays (4x100 medley, 4x200 freestyle).
Regan Smith got another gold for the United States in the women’s 100 backstroke, clocking 58.22 to finish 0.18 ahead of Canadian rival Kylie Masse with another American, Claire Curzan, finishing third.
Also Monday, Italy’s
Thomas Ceccon set a world record in the men’s 100 backstroke.
Ceccon clocked 51.60 seconds to shave 0.15 seconds off the mark set by American Ryan Murphy at the 2016 Olympics.
Ceccon is the second Italian man to set a world record in long course swimming after Giorgio Lambert, who held the record in the men’s 200 freestyle from 1989-99.
Italy’s Benedetta Pilato followed up by winning the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:05.93, 0.05 ahead of Germany’s Anna Elendt and 0.09 ahead of Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte.
The 17-year-old Pilato, who couldn’t contain her delight, is the youngest Italian swimmer to win gold at a worlds.
She brought her country’s tally of golds to three, already as many as Italy’s swimmers ever managed at a previous worlds.
Earlier, Romania’s David Popovici set a world junior record to win the men’s 200 meters in 1:43.21.
The 17-year-old Popovici was 1.26 seconds ahead of South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo and 1.77 ahead of Britain’s Tom Dean.
WARRIORS PARADE
Coach Steve Kerr and his champion Golden State Warriors celebrated the franchise’s fourth title in eight years with a victory parade through San Francisco on Monday as thousands packed the streets on a warm day and blue and gold confetti fell.
Players jumped off their respective rides to mingle with fans, with Otto Porter Jr. and Klay Thompson dancing and Andrew Wiggins spraying fans with champagne. Superstar Stephen Curry sported his three previous championship rings on a necklace.
Since Thompson uttered “championship or bust” with the team off to an 18-2 start, the Warriors seemed set to make good on his lofty proclamation, and they did.
This is the first time the Warriors celebrated a championship in the city, home to the Chase Center, as the previous three championship parades snaked through Oakland. That decision was met with some frustration from East Bay fans who saw their team move across the Bay after the 2019 season.
ETC. FSU:
Veteran broadcaster Jeff Culhane was hired as the voice of the Seminoles, replacing longtime announcer Gene Deckerhoff, who retired this spring after an illustrious 43-year career with the school. Culhane previously worked in Nebraska, West Virginia and most recently at North Dakota State. Deckerhoff, who served as the play-byplay announcer for the Seminoles from 19892022, also served as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
College basketball: Darius Lee, a 21-year-old senior at Houston Baptist University in Texas, was killed and eight other people were wounded Monday in an early-morning shooting at a gathering in Harlem, New York City police said. Lee grew up in Harlem, attended St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx and was back home for summer break. The wounded included six other males and two females, police said.