KAZAN, Russia -- Stanford’s Simone Manuel advanced Thursday to tomorrow’s 100-meter freestyle final and future Cardinal Katie Ledecky picked up her fourth gold medal of the 2015 FINA World Championships by anchoring the 800-meter relay team.
Ledecky’s leg was the quickest for Team USA, which captured its third straight 800-meter freestyle relay world title. Missy Franklin captured her 10th World Championship gold, the most all-time, while Ledecky won her eighth in eight career events.
Ledecky finished a furious comeback to get teammates Franklin, Leah Smith and Katie McLaughlin to the top of the podium. The eight-time World Championship gold medalist clocked a 1:55.64 final 200 as the American’s won in 7:45.37.
Italy (7:48.41) and China (7:49.10) went 2-3. Sweden led for the first three legs before falling back to fourth.
Manuel, the reigning 100 freestyle NCAA champion, placed seventh in prelims and sixth in the semifinals to take the No. 6 seed to tomorrow night. She went 53.81 in the semis to be one of two Americans in the final along with Franklin, the No. 8 seed.
The 100 final will be the first event of the evening session, beginning at 7:32 a.m. PT.