ON A ROLL: Katie Ledecky of the US celebrates after setting a new world record in winning the women's 800m freestyle final at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, yesterday. (Reuters)

DPA/Kazan, Russia


American teenager Katie Ledecky won the women’s 800 metre freestyle at the swimming World Championships yesterday to rewrite the history books in sweeping every distance from 200m up in the discipline.
Ledecky, 18, is the first swimmer to win the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m at the same Worlds and did so in style, capping a sensational week with a world record 800m time of eight minutes 7.39 seconds.
New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle won the race for silver but was a whopping 10.26 seconds behind the magnificent US youngster. Bronze went to Britain’s Jaz Carlin in 8:18.15 with Australian Jessica Ashwood fourth.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom successfully added the women’s 50m butterfly to the 100m honour she won earlier in the week. She clocked in a Championship record 24.96 seconds to win from Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen and China’s Lu Ying.
French Olympic champion Florent Manaudou also continued a successful meet by claiming the men’s 50m freestyle in 21.19, winning by 0.33 seconds from American Nathan Adrian and 0.37 from Brazil’s Bruno Fratus. Manaudou previously won the men’s 50m fly title.
In the women’s 200m backstroke, Australia’s Emily Seebohm claimed gold in 2:05.81, doubling up after winning the 100m, while South African Chad Le Clos won retained his men’s 100m butterfly.
The medal action concluded with the 4x100m mixed relay going to the United States quartet of Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian, Simone Manuel and Missy Franklin in a new world record time of 3:23.05, winning from the Netherlands and Canada.
However, the star of the night was undoubtedly their teammate Ledecky who led from the start in the 800m free and was never challenged en route to victory.
Including relays, she now has nine career Worlds golds in addition to the 800m title from the 2012 Olympics.
Sjostrom, the fastest ever female butterfly sprinter, had finished second in the 100m freestyle yesterday but said the fly remained her strong suit. That proved correct with a 0.38-second win over Ottesen with Lu a further three-hundredths behind, albeit with an Asian record of 25.37.
The blue riband men’s 50m free was settled 28 hundredths of a second above the world record pace set by Cesar Cielo in 2009. Cielo, the defending champion, was absent through injury leaving Manaudou to seize his crown.
There was further frustration for home hopeful Vladimir Morozov as he finished one-hundredth behind Fratus to miss out on a bronze medal by the smallest of margins. Morozov was disqualified from the 100m for a false start.
Seebohm led the 200m backstroke after the first length having gone out under world record pace but Franklin fought back to lead from Hungarian Katinka Hosszu with 50 metres left.
But the Australian was not to be beaten and made up more than a second deficit in a flying final stretch to claim the title.
Le Clos lost his 200m butterfly title to Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh earlier in the week but triumphed in the 100m in 50.56. Cseh took silver, 0.31 seconds behind, with bronze going to Joseph Isaac Schooling of Singapore.
China’s Sun Yang moved serenely into today’s final of the 1500m freestyle while not overly exerting himself in his heat. Sun, who has already retained the 400m and 800m free titles, qualified third behind Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri and American Connor Jaeger.
Australia’s Cate Campbell, fresh from losing her 100m freestyle crown to sister Bronte on Friday, topped the semi-finals in the women’s 50m free. Bronte qualified fourth.
Bahrain’s Alzain Tareq, the youngest ever worlds competitor at age 10, finished third in her heat and ended up 105th out of 113 entrants.
In the men’s 50m backstroke, defending champion Camille Lacourt of France progressed first to the semi-finals with Aussie Mitch Larkin, winner of the 100m and 200m events, fourth.
Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, who lost out to Russian Yuliya Efimova in the women’s 100m breaststroke, finished top of the 50m semi-finals with Efimova closely behind.