Katie Ledecky wins 400m free with room to improve at World Championships

LOS ANGELES – Katie Ledecky easily won the 400m freestyle at the US swimming championships on Friday, but she knows she will need to do more to clinch the title at July’s World Championships in Fukuoka.”It wasn’t great,” the American sighed after clocking 4min 00.45sec to lift the title in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In comparison, she set a world record of 3:56.46 in winning the gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016.Since then, Australia’s Ariarne Titmus has won the 2019 world title and outduelled her in the Tokyo Olympic final in 2021. Titmus broke the world record and Canadian teen Summer McIntosh lowered it again in March to 3:56.08.

With Titmus having clocked 3:58.47 at the Australian trials in June, Ledecky was clearly dissatisfied with her time but not discouraged.“So many things to learn from,” said the seven-time Olympic gold medalist and owner of 19 world titles. “So I’ll try to learn as much as I can and be better in a couple of weeks.”

The 26-year-old, who had opened the week with her fastest 800m free time since 2016, said she felt her rhythm was off from the start.With Japan looming, she will focus on “making sure I’m ready to go when I dive in and build throughout the race”.

Despite her disappointment, she was still nearly three seconds ahead of runner-up Bella Sims.In other events, Regan Smith grabbed her third title of the week in winning the 100m backstroke, clocking 2023’s second-fastest time of 57.71sec. She held off Katharine Berkoff, who punched her ticket to Fukuoka in 58.02.

“Super happy with that time,” said Smith, who also won the 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly as her training with coach Bob Bowman – former mentor to Michael Phelps – paid dividends.