Aug 15 (Reuters) – American Kate Douglass reclaimed the women’s 50 metres freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking 23.49 seconds in the preliminaries at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Irvine, California.
Douglass and fellow American Gretchen Walsh, her training partner and former University of Virginia teammate, have traded the record this summer.
Walsh set the previous mark of 23.55 at the Sette Colli meet on June 28. She posted the second-fastest time in Saturday morning’s preliminaries, finishing in 23.78 in her heat after Douglass, with the pair set to meet again in the evening final.
Douglass also helped break the world record in the mixed 4×100 metres medley relay on the opening night of the meet, alongside Walsh, Van Mathias and Will Modglin.
Douglass is a five-time Olympic medalist and the championships are being viewed as an important early benchmark ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll)
