Sun, Ledecky win gold; France take men’s freestyle relay

Agencies/Barcelona

Sun, 21, added the world title to the Olympic crown he claimed a year ago, and just as he did in the London 2012 final, Yang dominated from early on in Barcelona.

The Chinese clocked 3min 41.59sec to claim the world title, finishing more than three seconds ahead of Hagino, who swam 3:44.82, while Jaeger finished in 3:44.85.

“I give thanks to my coach and my parents,” said an emotional Sun, who has moved his training base to Hong Kong since his London triumph.

“I have been training for this for the past 10 years and it has paid off.

“Over the last year, I have experienced a lot of new things and I still managed to win the gold medal.”

At the halfway stage, Sun was on track to break Paul Biedermann’s world record of 3:40.07, set four years ago at the Rome world championships, but the German ultimately holds on to the mark set using the now-banned high-tech suits.

After Sun finished second in the 400m freestyle at the Shanghai 2011 world championships, the 1,500m freestyle world record-holder will be aiming to defend his 800m freestyle crown when the heats start on Tuesday.

American teenager Katie Ledecky stormed to gold in the 400 metres freestyle becoming only the second woman after Italy’s Federica Pellegrini to break four minutes.

Olympic champion Camille Muffat of France finished a disappointing seventh.

The 16-year-old Ledecky, gold medallist at 800 metres at last year’s London Olympics, was on course to break Pellegrini’s world record of 3:59.15 but slipped off the pace in the final 100 metres to finish in a still-blistering time of 3:59.82.

Spain’s Melanie Costa Schmid lifted the home support inside the hilltop Palau Sant Jordi by taking silver in 4:02.47 and Lauren Boyle of New Zealand was third in 4:03.89.

Missy Franklin captured her first gold of what she hopes will be an eight-title haul at the world swimming championships when she led the United States to victory in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

Led off by the 18-year-old, the USA won in a time of 3min 32.31sec. Australia finished second at 3min 32.43sec—just 0.12 behind—while the Netherlands finished back at 3min 35.77sec.

It was Megan Romano, swimming the final freestyle leg, who managed to hold off Australia’s Alicia Coutts to give the USA women their second gold of the night after Katie Ledecky’s win in the 400m freestyle.

Victory comes exactly a decade after the USA women’s relay squad last won world gold in this event—also in Barcelona at the 2003 championships.

Natalie Coughlin, 30, who swam the second leg on Sunday, is the only member of the 2003 squad who tasted relay victory a decade later.

Jeremy Stravius produced a scintillating final leg as France stormed from behind to see off the United States, Russia and Australia and steal men’s 4x100 relay gold.

Olympic champions in London last year, the French were fourth when Stravius dived into the water but he hauled in American James Feigen, Russia’s Danila Izotov and James Roberts of Australia to touch in three minutes 11.18 seconds.

The United States matched their silver from London in a time of 3:11.42 and Russia pipped Australia to the bronze in 3:11.44. Fabien Gilot’s contribution on the third leg was also significant as he was the only man to go under 47 seconds, recording a split time of 46.9 compared to Stravius’s 47.59.