Race Video is courtesy of USA Swimming
2015 Arena Pro Swim Series – WOMEN’S 400 FREE – FINALS
Katie Ledecky was fast in the 400m freestyle prelims, 100m freestyle prelims, and 100m freestyle finals. When Ledecky is on, she’s on, and that made for a lot of excitement heading into the 400m freestyle final.
Right from the get-go it was Ledecky who took out the first 50 under world record pace with a split of 27.92. It was already decided then that Ledecky would win the race over Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu who ultimately finished second in the race.
At the 100 Ledecky was over a body-length ahead of Hosszu and turned in 57.39; half a second under world record pace. She carried that pace through to the 200 where she turned in 1:57.99. She was slightly over at the 300 mark by about 0.3 seconds with a split of 2:28.65.
She held a great pace for the remainder of the race solidifying a gold medal and a fantastic time of 4:00.47. Just to put into perspective how great Ledecky’s swim was, no other swimmer has ever been faster than that other than Federica Pellegrini who swam a 3:59.15 at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.
Second was Hosszy in 4:09.17 just holding off Elizabeth Beisel who chased her down, but ended up third overall in 4:09.62.
I think Ladecky’s spectacular times at Austin are partially the result of her very good Christmas training, but also partially the result of her actually being at a higher level last year than even her great results would seem to indicate in the less than ideal situation last year at Pan Pacs.
Katie has now the 5 fastest times in history in textile in the 400 free.
She has already swum 4 times under 4.00.
Her last 10 400 free performances in final
4.05.00 US olympic trials 2012
4.05.21 Mesa Grand Prix 2013
4.04.05 US Nationals 2013
3.59.82 Barcelona world championships 2013
4.04.46 Austin Grand Prix 2014
4.03.84 Mesa Grand Prix 2014
4.03.09 GU TWST Senior Invitational 2014
3.58.86 US Nationals 2014
3.58.37 Pan Pacs 2014
4.00.37 Austin Grand Prix 2015
Average of 4.02.31?
God if she held for the 1-2 stroke after her turns each wall she’d of broken the WR for sure!