Women’s 800 Freestyle – 2014 Austin Grand Prix – as reported by Jared Anderson / SwimSwam
Danish national record-holder Lotte Friis led early, but Katie Ledecky completed a thrilling comeback, gaining on Friis steadily from about the 350-mark onward and erasing the two-second lead the Dane had built up. Ledecky first took the lead at the 650-meter turn and powered away from there to go 8:26.70. That’s a bit off her 8:13.86 World Record from last summer, but still an awfully good swim for January 19th.
Friis took second in 8:28.65. Those two were completely checked out from the rest of the pack early on.
Canada’s Savannah King finished third in 8:38.87, a tenth ahead of Chloe Sutton, who went 8:38.93. Ledecky’s new training partner Isabella Rongione finished fifth in 8:47.39 and behind her was the top swim out of the morning heats, 13-year-old Madison Homovich of NCAC. Leah Stevens was 8:49.68, just behind Homovich’s 8:49.49 and NCAP’s Megan Byrnes took 8th place.
WOMEN’S 200 IM – FINALS
Coming off her 4th place 200 fly finish, Cal’s Caitlin Leverenz got a better result in the 200 IM. The U.S. Olympian went 2:13.44 to win easily over Palo Alto Stanford’s Karlee Bispo. Bispo moved up from the fourth seed, charging home on the freestyle leg to take second in 2:16.03.
SwimMAC’s Katie Meili picked up her second third-place finish of the night, going 2:16.13 – Bispo ran by Meili at the finish, but the SwimMAC postgrad was able to hold off a surging Katie Ledecky, who split an event-best 29.9 on the freestyle. Ledecky finished 4th in 2:16.27 and will now gear up for her 800 freestyle battle with Lotte Friis.
Former Texas Longhorn Laura Sogar went 2:18.69 competing for her original Bluefish club. Courtney Monsees, Destiny Nelson and Megan Kingsley rounded out the top 8.
 Tera Van Beilen took 9th place in her second swim of the night, winning the B final in 2:19.91 after taking 5th in the 100 breast a few events ago.
Katie is getting ready for something big. I am pretty sure by the events she has been swimming in that she plans to do a Michael Phelps routine. I think she is going for 8 medals in worlds and the Olympics. She will do Middle distance and long distance freestyle and Im’s. The way she keeps swimming she could do it. What’s scary is how young she is.
If she had swum 400IM and her 200 to 400 ratio were the same as it was for the freestyle, I get a 4 42.89 for her 400IM just 1.33 s behind the winner. Could she be thinking about the 400IM?
Jim C – I bet she’ll give it a shot at some point.
Is there video of the 200 IM final?
Good luck.
I ask for the videos of finals since Saturday and it’s not successful so far.
Your only chance to find something is here but it’s very complicated. For example, if you want the men’s 100 free, it’s E02_HFA..And I don’t find the videos after the 20th event.
http://coverage.takeitlive.tv/Swimming/USA-Swimming/2014-ARENA-GRAND-PRIX-at-AUSTI
I’ve found other videos!
If you want the videos after the 20th event, click on E20 at bottom right.
You will have all the other races until the 32nd event.
Yes, it’s awfully complicated but it’s still better than nothing.
The race you look for is the women’s 200 IM A-Final so it’s E27_HFA.
I try to post the link.
http://coverage.takeitlive.tv/Swimming/USA-Swimming/2014-ARENA-GRAND-PRIX-at-AUSTI/E20/i-wjVr6rp
IT WORKS! 🙂
So I recap. If you want to watch a final, look for the event number and the letter.
For example, the women’s 100 free was the first event.
So, if you want to watch the A-Final, look for E01_HFA.
B-Final is E01_HFB.
I hope you have understood.
Tough double. I would rather say crazy double.
The 800 free was a complete replay of Barcelona’s race with Lotte starting very fast and Katie playing with the Danish swimmer before killing her at the end.
Just something our swimmers grow up on in our age group system.
Again, we all hope that Katie is racing the 800 for us 10 years from now- but that is a lot of 800s between now and 2024. In a midseason meet, let her have fun racing something different. The 200 IM is fun and a fresh challenge for her. Fun and fresh is great at this time of the year.
They know what they are doing.
I’m sure they know what they are doing.
And these Grand Prix meets are good to try something different and to swim for fun.
It was just to say she’s incredibly strong to do that double.
But she said she wasn’t sure she will do it again in the future. 🙂