Ledecky breaks world record in 400 freestyle
IRVINE — Katie Ledecky broke the world record in the 400-meter freestyle at the U.S. national championships Saturday night, becoming the first woman since Janet Evans to hold world marks in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles at the same time, and impressing a downtrodden Michael Phelps, who lost for the third time this week.
Ledecky, a 17-year-old from Bethesda, Md., who will enter Stanford in 2015, won in 3 minutes, 58.86 seconds. She bettered the old mark of 3:59.15 set by Italy’s Federica Pellegrini at the 2009 world championships in Rome, when a raft of records were broken during the apex of the high-tech-suit era.
Those suits were banned the following year, making world records harder to achieve.
“That is some serious speed,” marveled Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history. “It’s good seeing somebody who’s hungry and somebody who wants it like her. She puts it all out there and she does the work.”
Evans owned all three women’s distance freestyle world records from 1988 to 2006.
“It means a lot. It’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Janet,” Ledecky said. “She’s a great person and a really great role model for all U.S. distance swimmers.”
It was Ledecky’s third win of the meet, after she claimed the 200 and 800 freestyles. She earned the chance to swim all three events at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia this month.
Cal swimmer Missy Franklin powered through the final lap to win the 100 backstroke in 59.38 seconds, the world’s third-fastest time. She was the only woman to break 1 minute in the race and added her third title of the meet.
“I knew the rest of the field was going to be out really fast, so I knew I had to bring it home strong,” Franklin said.
Rachel Bootsma was second at 1:00.71 and Elizabeth Pelton took third in 1:00.76, giving Cal swimmers a sweep of the top three spots.
Olympians Jessica Hardy, a Cal alum, and Micah Lawrence tied for first in the 100 breaststroke at 1:06.51, sixthquickest in the world this year. Hardy earlier won the nonOlympic 50 breast event, in which Lawrence was third, and Lawrence took the 200 breast title.
Phelps finished sixth in the 100 backstroke. Olympic champion Matt Grevers won in 52.75. Phelps touched in 53.95. He has one event remaining Sunday.
“I hate this,” he groused. “Anything to be able to change this.”