AFP, Omaha :
World record-holder Katie Ledecky won the 800m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials on Saturday to earn a chance to defend the title she won four years ago in London.
Ledecky pushed early and was on pace to break her own world record of 8min, 06.68secs through the first 400m. With less than 200m remaining she had slipped off world record pace, but claimed a decisive victory in 8:10.32.
That’s the third-fastest in history-and a slight improvement on the 8:10.91 she posted in Friday’s preliminaries.
“I got the job done, I punched my ticket,” said Ledecky, who added the 800m free to a Rio program that already includes the 200m and 400m freestyles.
“I would have liked to have been faster, but I could kind of tell during the race that it wasn’t going to be much faster than yesterday,” Ledecky said. “I would have liked to have brought in my legs a little bit more throughout the race, but they just weren’t there tonight and made my arms a little tired.”
Ledecky was just 15 when she shot to prominence in London with an upset win in the 800m free.
