Douglass breaks 50m freestyle swimming world document, Ledecky loses 800m | Sport News

US swim famous person Katie Ledecky was upstaged by Lani Pallister, whereas Kate Douglass made historical past twice in 50m freestyle.

Australian swimmer Lani Pallister dealt US nice Katie Ledecky her first 800 metres freestyle defeat in a significant worldwide meet, beating her one-time idol on the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California, on Saturday.

Pallister led wire-to-wire en path to victory in 8 minutes, 6.1 seconds, and Ledecky’s determined late cost was not sufficient as she completed second in 8:07.26.

It was a shocking consequence on the ultimate day of Pan Pacs motion that noticed American Kate Douglass break the 50m freestyle world document twice on the best way to gold and earn 200m breaststroke silver and medley relay gold as properly.

Ledecky has dominated the 800m since she received Olympic gold in 2012 as a 15-year-old, successful 13 worldwide golds since then. That contains 4 Olympic gold medals and 7 world titles within the occasion.

Canadian Summer McIntosh beat Ledecky within the 800m free at a minor home assembly in Florida in February 2024. But world record-holder Ledecky maintained her maintain on the occasion with a razor-thin victory over Pallister and McIntosh in a World Championships thriller final yr in Singapore, the place Ledecky mentioned her rule as youthful swimmers started closing in was “I don’t lose 800s”.

Ledecky ‘a dominant force’

Pallister, who claimed her first profession win over Ledecky within the 400m free earlier this week earlier than ending second behind her within the 1,500m, confirmed that rule could be damaged because the 29-year-old American appears so as to add to her assortment of 9 Olympic gold medals on the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The Australian punched the water in delight and received a hug throughout the lane rope from Ledecky.

“Katie is such a dominant force,” mentioned Pallister, who completed the week with gold within the 200m, 400m and 800m free and the 4x200m free relay.

“Without her, we wouldn’t have women’s distance swimming in the place we’re at at the moment.

“To be part of that story at the moment [it’s] pretty much all because we get to chase Katie.”

Douglass dominates

Douglass, in the meantime, firmly established herself because the one to chase within the 50m freestyle, successful the ultimate in a devastating 23.19 seconds.

That sliced three-10ths of a second off the world document of 23.49 seconds she set hours earlier and noticed her end a whopping 55-100ths of a second forward of US teammate Gretchen Walsh.

Walsh had set a world document of 23.55 on June 28 in Rome, the place she broke the world mark Douglass had set on June 19.

Australia’s reigning world champion Meg Harris took bronze in 23.89.

Douglass returned lower than half an hour later to assert silver within the 200m breaststroke, received by Canadian Alexanne LePage in 2:21.73.

Douglass capped her night time swimming the freestyle anchor leg for the US 4×100 medley relay crew, which took gold in 3:50.43, 4.66 seconds forward of Australia.

Australian Jamie Jack received the boys’s 50m free in 21.35 seconds and Zac Stubblety-Cook rallied from fourth on the last flip to win the boys’s 200m breaststroke in 2:08.09 and provides Australia one other gold within the four-day assembly of high swimmers from non-European nations.

More McIntosh disappointment

Chinese Olympian Yu Yiting began the night time with an upset of world record-holder Summer McIntosh within the 200m particular person medley, main many of the means and holding off the Canadian’s cost on the ultimate freestyle leg to win in 2:07.45.

McIntosh, the reigning world and Olympic champion, touched in 2:07.47.

It was one other disappointment for McIntosh in a meet that included 400m particular person medley gold however solely silver within the 200m free and a failure to make the championship last within the 400m free.

Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita accomplished a males’s medley double with a 200m victory in 1:56.02.

Sam Short clocked an Australian document of 14:33.97 so as to add 1,500m freestyle to his 400m and 800m gold.

Short, who pulled off the identical treble on the Commonwealth Games, completed 8.62 seconds in entrance of Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku and mentioned he was impressed by the world document of 14:26.79 set by Germany’s Johannes Liebmann on the European Championships in Paris on Saturday.

American Bobby Finke, the two-time Olympic gold medallist whose world mark was damaged by Liebmann, was third in 14:44.26.