American swimmer Gretchen Walsh set her 10th world record at the world short course championships with gold in the 50-meter freestyle final before adding an 11th as part of the winning U.S. team in the women’s 4×100 medley relay.
Walsh finished the 50 free at Budapest’s Duna Arena in 22.83 seconds — .22 ahead of fellow American Kate Douglass in second.
Walsh later extended her world record total to 11 — nine individual and two in relays — when the United States, comprised of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Walsh and Douglass, won the relay in 3 minutes, 40.41 seconds. That started with Smith’s backstroke lead-off leg of 54.02 seconds, also a world record.
Smith also had a world record time of 1:58:04 to win the women’s 200 backstroke final, and her compatriot Luke Hobson took gold in the men’s 200 free with 1:38.61, also a world record.
Organizers said a record total of 30 world records were set at the championships.
A world record was also set in the men’s 4×100 medley relay by Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev, competing as neutral athletes, in 3:18.68.
The 25-meter pool is half the length of an Olympic pool.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
