At the visitbloomington.com Bucceto’s Open at Indiana University, Katie Ledecky has swum a 4:03.67 in prelims of the 400 meter freestyle. She holds the fastest time in prelims by almost seventeen seconds. Seeded 2nd going into tonight’s final is her NCAP teammate Isabella Rongione (4:20.54) followed by CPSC’s Hannah Kukurugya (4:21.99).
Ledecky, of course, already owns the top time in the world this year with a 4:00.47 from the Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin. This time puts her with the third fastest time in the world behind Jazz Carlin of Great Britain. Carlin’s number two time of 4:03.51 comes from the 2015 British Swimming Championships in April of this year.
2014-2015 LCM Women 400 Free
LEDECKY
3.59.13
| 2 | Sharon VAN ROUWENDAAL | NED | 4.03.02 | 08/02 |
| 3 | Jessica ASHWOOD | AUS | 4.03.34 | 08/02 |
| 4 | Jazmin CARLIN | GBR | 4.03.51 | 04/15 |
| 5 | Lauren BOYLE | NZL | 4.03.88 | 04/03 |
Before becoming the first American woman to crack the 4 minute barrier in this event at the 2013 Barcelona World Championships (she won gold in that race with a 3:59.82 and scared Federica Pelligrini‘s magic suit record), Ledecky’s fastest time on the season was a 4:04.05 from U.S. Summer Nationals.
In 2014, she went a 4:03.09 at the Woodlands Swim Team Senior Invitational, the same meet where she surprised the world and smashed her own WR in the 1500m free, seemingly out of nowhere. That was the last “in-season” swim for her of the summer, before she obliterated the WR in that race at both US Nationals and the 2014 Pan Pac Champs.
All in all, this is a very good time for her, and it’s right on pace with her 4:03-4:04 range, pre-champ meet tune ups from last year and from 2013. Lest we forget that she still has to race this in finals; time will tell if she left some in the tank for an even faster swim tonight.
Meet results can be found on Meet Mobile. Search for ‘Bloomington.’
How often do we see Fratus, Adrian, Cielo, Morozov, Manaudou post a 22+ second 50 in prelims? To “save their energy” for 21 seconds in finals?
Screw that. If Ledecky gets the top prelim seed by 17 seconds, that’s still an opportunity to swim fast.
And people are suggesting that the 400 free at worlds wont be a race for silver… lol
She is just that damn gooood !!!! waaaaaaaaowwwwwwwww
Seriously. There’s a small chance that this morning’s swim would win Worlds, and it was presumably unrested and not a 100% effort.
4:03 for a just prelims swim?.. If true that’s is kinda scary for this evening…
She was in 4.02.67 in the prelims of Mesa.
It’s now common for her.