Once ratified, American Katie Ledecky will be the world-leader with three FINA Junior World Records after this weekend at the Mesa Grand Prix.
She already held the 200 and the 400 freestyle marks coming into Saturday, and her 8:20.10 gives her the 800 record as well.
The time is still over 6 seconds away from Ledecky’s 8:13.86 World Record set last year in Barcelona, but FINA didn’t accept Junior World Record times until April 1st of this year. The standard to beat was the 8:32.30 swum by Australian Bonnie Macdonald at the 2011 Junior World Championships, and Australian 16-year old Alanna Bowles broke that three weeks ago at the Australian National Championships with an 8:29.40. While FINA has not yet gotten around to begin updating Junior World Records, Bowles’ should get it first, followed by Ledecky’s new swim.
Ledecky really charged this race early, testing her continuing-to-improve speed. She went out in 2:00.55, which is almost a full second faster than she was in her World Record swim, and remained ahead of World Record pace for the first 300 meters of this race. She held that pace through about 350 meters before falling way off, but still swam to 3rd in the world.
Women’s 800 Free – Splits Mesa/Barcelona
| Mesa | Barcelona | |
| 100m | 58.55 | 59.04 |
| 200m | 2:00.55 | 2:01.23 |
| 300m | 3:03.86 | 3:03.90 |
| 400m | 4:07.60 | 4:06.44 |
| 500m | 5:11.41 | 5:08.72 |
| 600m | 6:14.62 | 6:11.03 |
| 700m | 7:18.50 | 7:13.12 |
| 800m | 8:20.11 | 8:13.86 |
I hope she will try to make the 4×100 free relay at nationals, that would be awesome!
lol you guys are on a roll with these junior world record headlines…which are a bit ridiculous when she holds the REAL world records!! (and why don’t they count??)
Day 3 finals Live Recap seems to be missing for me? I’m confused but I can’t seem to find it
yea mine disappeared as well…
hey guys, it’s right here. Troy just updated the headline when the session completed. Sorry for any confusion. http://swimswam.com/2014-mesa-grand-prix-day-3-finals-live-recap/
Thanks!