Italian surprises Murphy, sets mark

Ledecky earns 17th career worlds gold

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Italy’s Thomas Ceccon set a world record in the men’s 100 backstroke and Katie Ledecky claimed yet another gold at the swimming world championships Monday.

Ceccon stunned the competition in Budapest by clocking 51.60 seconds to shave 0.15 of a second off the previous best mark set by American Ryan Murphy at the 2016 Olympics.

“Yesterday, I swam 52.1, very easy,” Ceccon said. “I am feeling good in water and just doing my race, staying calm and focusing on my race. And that’s it.”

Murphy, a Cal alum, finished second, 0.37 of a second behind.

“Hats off to Thomas,” Murphy said. “That’s a really, really fast time and it’s going to be an exciting couple of years.”

Ledecky extended her record worlds title haul to 17 with her fourth in the 1,500 freestyle.

The Stanford alum was not threatened and clocked 15:30.15 — just under 10 seconds more than her world record from 2018 — to finish 14.74 seconds ahead of fellow American Katie Grimes, 16.

Ledecky punched the water in delight, then embraced her teammate, who is the second-youngest medalist in the 1,500 at a worlds since Ledecky won it for the first time in 2013.

“To share this moment with her is really special,” Ledecky said of Grimes.

Ledecky, 25, also won in 2015 and 2017 and has at least four world titles in the each of the 1,500, 800 and 400 freestyle events. Only Michael Phelps also won at least four gold medals in three different swimming events at the worlds.

Australian Lani Pallister finished third, 18.81 off Ledecky’s pace, for her country’s first medal in this race. The 1,500 freestyle was the only women’s event at a worlds in which an Australian swimmer had not reached the podium.

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 Kylie Masse with another American, Claire Curzan, finishing third.

Italy’s show then began with Ceccon. He is the second Italian man to set a world record in long course swimming after Giorgio Lambert. Lambert held the record in the men’s 200 freestyle from 1989 through ’99.

Italy’s Benedetta Pilato followed that 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.

Pilato, a 17-year-old 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.