Leipzig: Katie Ledecky got a record 16th gold medal and Sarah Sjoestroem, Ruta Meilutyte and the Australian 4x100 metres mixed relay team recorded world records on an action-packed penultimate day of the world aquatics championships on Saturday in Japan. American Ledecky’s 800m freestyle triumph in Fukuoka made her the first swimmer to win one event six times at the worlds, and she also moved one ahead of former great Michael Phelps with 16 individual golds. She added the 800m gold to that from the 1,500 in 8 minutes 8.87 seconds, winning from China’s Li Bingjie and Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
Sweden’s Sjoestroem first got a fifth straight gold in the 50m butterfly and then bettered her own 50m freestyle world record from 2017 by four-hundredths of a second in the semi-finals, clocking 23.61 seconds.
Also in the semi-finals, Lithuania’s Meilutyte equalled the two-year-old 50m breastroke world record from Italy’s Benedetta Pilato in 29.30 seconds. The Australian quartet of Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Shayna Jack and Mollie O’Callaghan then got the mixed relay gold in 3:18.83 minutes ahead of the US and Britain. There was more Australian joy when Kaylee McKeown completed a first-ever sweep of all three women’s backstroke golds with first place over 200m, and Cameron McEvoy topped the men’s 50m freestyle.
Frenchman Maxime Grousset got 100m butterfly gold. (DPA)
