American Kate Douglass crushes 50m freestyle world record
LOS ANGELES: Kate Douglass shattered the women’s 50m freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking 23.49sec in the heats at the Pan Pacific Championships to set a tantalizing showdown with former record-holder Gretchen Walsh.
American swimmer Kate Douglass set a new women's 50-meter freestyle world record on Saturday, completing the distance in 23.49 seconds at the Pan Pacific Championships heat. The previous record of 23.55 seconds was previously held by her American teammate Gretchen Walsh, who established the mark on June 18 during the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.
This remarkable achievement occurred just 12 hours after Douglass delivered the second-fastest 100-meter freestyle of all time, swimming the lead-off leg of the United States' victorious 4x100m free relay team. Her split time of 51.69 seconds was just one hundredth of a second shy of the world record set by Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen in June.
The 50-meter freestyle final promises to be an exciting spectacle, as Walsh, who swam in the subsequent heat following Douglass's record-breaking performance, clocked 23.78 seconds - the second-fastest time of the morning. Australian swimmer Meg Harris, who defeated Walsh in the 100-meter freestyle event on Thursday, finished third with a time of 24.22 seconds.
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