{"id":1312810,"date":"2019-07-25T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/ledecky-returns-but-us-falls-to-australia-in-relay-at-worlds\/"},"modified":"2019-07-25T11:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T17:40:00","slug":"ledecky-returns-but-us-falls-to-australia-in-relay-at-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/ledecky-returns-but-us-falls-to-australia-in-relay-at-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Ledecky returns but US falls to Australia in relay at worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Australia’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team celebrate after wining the final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Thursday, July 25, 2019. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

GWANGJU, South Korea \u2014 The Americans got ailing Katie Ledecky back. They just couldn\u2019t overcome a world record by the Australians.<\/p>\n

Ledecky returned after two days out of the pool while being sick to swim in the 4\u00d7200-meter freestyle relay. She rallied the U.S. to the lead on her second leg, but it wasn\u2019t enough to defend the title from 2017.<\/p>\n

Australia won in 7 minutes, 41.50 seconds at the world championships on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ariarne Titmus, Madison Wilson, Brianna Throssell and Emma McKeon took down the old mark of 7:42.08 set by China at the 2009 worlds in Rome during the height of the rubber suit era.<\/p>\n

The United States took silver in 7:41.87, also going under China\u2019s old mark. Canada earned bronze.<\/p>\n

It was still a big night at the pool for the U.S. team.<\/p>\n

The Americans medaled in all five finals, with Caeleb Dressel and Olivia Smoliga winning golds.<\/p>\n

After swimming her four-lap leg, Ledecky sat down in a chair behind the blocks. She got up to cheer on Katie McLaughlin during the anchor leg.<\/p>\n

Ledecky hadn\u2019t competed since preliminaries on Monday. The following day she withdrew from the 200 free heats and the 1,500 free final because of symptoms that included dehydration and vomiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly what caused this all,\u201d she said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have pulled out if it wasn\u2019t serious or if I wasn\u2019t concerned and scared and worried about my health.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the middle of a sleepless night, Ledecky\u2019s phone pinged with a text from Michael Phelps. The retired 23-time Olympic gold medalist heard about her illness half a world away and was checking in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meant a lot,\u201d Ledecky said. \u201cThat gave me a little bit (extra).\u201d<\/p>\n

Her meet had gotten off to a rough start when she was upset by Titmus in the 400 free on the first night.<\/p>\n

This time, Simone Manuel led off against the 18-year-old Aussie, with Titmus taking it out under world-record pace on the opening lap.<\/p>\n

Ledecky put the U.S. in front before handing it off to Melanie Margalis, who led after 600 meters. That\u2019s when McLaughlin chased against McKeon, who put the Aussies right back in front for good.<\/p>\n

Ledecky\u2019s lone remaining individual event is the 800 free, with prelims on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat went a lot better than I expected, so I\u2019d say 95% sure that I\u2019ll swim tomorrow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Watching from the stands was Lilly King, who was disqualified from the morning heats of the 200 breaststroke and lost an appeal to be reinstated.<\/p>\n

The American was penalized for not touching the wall with both hands in a simultaneous motion in the first turn of the four-lap race.<\/p>\n

It was a big blow for King, the outspoken doping critic aiming for a sweep of the breaststroke titles in Gwangju. She already won the 100 over Russian rival Yulia Efimova, who advanced to the 200 final as the fastest qualifier.<\/p>\n

Dressel won swimming\u2019s glamour event, the 100 free, for his third gold and fourth medal overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurt really bad to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t always get that magical feeling every night but you\u2019ve just got to shut the brain off and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dressel touched in 46.96 seconds, the only man to dip under 47 seconds in the final. He was only 0.05 seconds off the 10-year-old world record of 46.91 set by Brazil\u2019s Cesar Cielo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took 100% effort and I had someone right there on my tail for me to race,\u201d Dressel said. \u201cI kind of shut off thinking about the race so that helped a lot and having Kyle right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers of Australia settled for silver in 47.08. Vladislav Grinev of Russia took bronze in 47.82.<\/p>\n

Dressel tied for quickest off the starting block and held off a challenge from Chalmers in the closing meters to defend the world title he won in 2017.<\/p>\n

Dressel hopped on the lane rope, tossing his head back and his legs out in front of him in celebration.<\/p>\n

Dressel\u2019s other golds came in the 50 butterfly, a non-Olympic event, and the 4\u00d7100 free relay. He took silver in the mixed 4\u00d7100 medley relay.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s 200 individual medley title went to Daiya Seto of Japan. He touched in 1:56.14.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Desplanches of Switzerland took silver. Chase Kalisz, the 2017 champion, earned bronze, ending the Americans\u2019 streak of winning at eight consecutive worlds.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s 200 butterfly, Boglarka Kapas of Hungary won in 2:06.78. U.S. teammates Hali Flickinger and Katie Drabot took silver and bronze, respectively, after coming in as the top two fastest qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Smoliga won the women\u2019s 50 backstroke, a non-Olympic event.<\/p>\n

She took control from Lane 2 after her more heralded teammate, Kathleen Baker, had the fastest qualifying time. Smoliga clocked 27.33 seconds. Baker faded to sixth.<\/p>\n

In the semifinals of the men\u2019s 200 breaststroke, Matthew Wilson of Australia equaled the world record of 2:06.67. His time matched the mark set by Ippei Watanabe of Japan in January 2017. Watanabe finished third in the same heat.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team celebrate after wining the final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Thursday, July 25, 2019. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)AP | AP GWANGJU, South Korea \u2014 The Americans got ailing Katie Ledecky back. They just couldn\u2019t overcome a world record by the Australians. Ledecky returned after two days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 07:21:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}