‘Make Dipa Karmakar country’s brand ambassador’
Dipa Karmakar, the first Indian woman Olympian in gymnastics who finished fourth in the Rio Games, should be made the…
American sensation Katie Ledecky shattered her own world record en-route to a stunning 800m freestyle win, finishing almost ten seconds ahead of her nearest opponent in the Rio Olympics.
Ledecky, who has been touted as perhaps the greatest long-distance swimmer of all time, got off to a great start and kept up a relentless pace throughout.
Her timing on the night was an impressive eight minutes, 4.79 seconds, beating her previous mark of 8:06.68 set in Austin, Texas in January.
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British swimmer Jazz Carlin won her second silver medal in 8:16.17, while Boglarka Kapas of Hungary took the bronze.
Ledecky, defending Olympic champion at the distance, added to her golds earlier in the week in the 200 and 400 freestyle and the 4×200 freestyle relay, plus a silver in the 4×100 relay.
The only previous woman to win the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle at the same Games was American Debbie Meyer in 1968.
Ledecky&’s feat is all the more astounding, considering she is still in her teens and yet is dominating the sport like no other, save perhaps Michael Phelps.
She cut 1.89 seconds off her own record in the longest event of the women&’s swimming programme.
It was the seventh world swimming record of the Rio Games, and the second by Ledecky, who achieved a similar feat in winning the 400 freestyle.
Since winning the 800 in London four years ago, she has been invincible, and anything but a victory for the 19-year-old would have been one of the biggest shocks of the Games.
Carlin and Kapas battled it out for second, with Spain&’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia challenging them for much of the way.
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