KAZAN, Russia -- It was another good day in the pool Monday for Stanford-affiliated swimmers at the FINA World Championships. Katie Ledecky broke her own world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle prelims and Maya DiRado clocked a personal best to finish fourth in the 200 IM.
DiRado just missed a medal, finishing in 2:08.99. Hungarian Katinka Hosszu repeated as world champion with a world record 2:06.12, Japan’s Kanako Watanabe (2:08.45) and Great Britain’s Siobhan Marie O’Connor (2:08.77) earned the silver and bronze.
“It’s kind of tough turning around and seeing the scoreboard because on one hand, a goal was to medal individually at this meet," said DiRado. "But I also had a goal of breaking 2:09, so I got the one that I could control, and that’s all you can do at that point."
Ledecky’s time of 15:27.71 topped her old mark of 15:28.36, set at last year’s Pan Pacific Championships. She was more than 27 seconds quicker than the No. 2 qualifier for tomorrow’s final en route to breaking her own Championship record which she set in a gold-medal performance in 2013.
“I wasn’t kicking much. I think breaking that record is just a testament to the work I’ve been doing and the shape that I’m in right now. I’m kind of in shock right now,” Ledecky said.
Ledecky, who won gold in the 400-meter freestyle Sunday, plans to swim the prelim and semifinal of the 200-meter freestyle as well as the 1,500 final tomorrow.