{"id":405028,"date":"2019-12-04T16:17:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T23:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=405028"},"modified":"2019-12-04T19:19:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T02:19:22","slug":"2019-us-open-katie-ledecky-swims-routine-814-800-free-in-atlanta-guilherme-da-costa-takes-747-mens-800","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2019-us-open-katie-ledecky-swims-routine-814-800-free-in-atlanta-guilherme-da-costa-takes-747-mens-800\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 US Open: Katie Ledecky Swims Routine 8:14 800 Free in Atlanta; Guilherme Da Costa Takes 7:47 Men’s 800"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2019 US Open began on Wednesday night in Atlanta, Georgia with the men’s and women’s 800 freestyle on the program as this has the feels of an “opening day” in football or baseball because it kicks off the Olympic year with a stacked long course meet.\u00a0Katie Ledecky\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Guilherme da Costa\u00a0<\/strong>took the women’s and men’s races as the meet kicks off in full force with the heats on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

US Open Details:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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  • Live Stream<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Live Results<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Heat Sheets<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Women’s 800 Free<\/h3>\n

    Katie Ledecky\u00a0<\/strong>continued her impressive fall with an 8:14.59 in the 800 free on Wednesday night at the US Open in Atlanta as she was never challenged throughout the race, winning ahead of Australian\u00a0Kiah Melverton\u00a0<\/strong>(8:26.08) and USA’s\u00a0Leah Smith\u00a0<\/strong>(8:27.49).<\/p>\n

    Ledecky was an 8:14.9 earlier this year at the Greensboro Pro Swim Series as she was not far off her gold medal winning time from the World Championships earlier this year<\/a> at 8:13.8 where she was sick and not at 100% for the final. She is back on track with another consistent sub-8:15 which is outside the top 25 swims in the event (she holds 24 of the top 25 times all-time). Her swim tonight in Atlanta was faster than the silver medal winning time from\u00a0Simona Quadarella\u00a0<\/strong>(8:14.9) at Worlds, meaning Ledecky will be very very tough to beat at Tokyo next summer, assuming she doesn’t fall ill again on the way to an unprecedented third straight Olympic gold in the 800.<\/p>\n

    Melverton of Australia was second ahead of Smith as both were finalists in this event at Worlds with Smith placing fifth and Melverton placing seventh. Australia has a particularly impressive group in this event as it will be no walk in the park for Melverton to try and make the Tokyo team, having to deal with Worlds bronze medalist\u00a0Ariarne Titmus\u00a0<\/strong>and rising star and World juniors gold medalist\u00a0Lani Pallister<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    This was a particularly stacked field in the US Open tonight as Open Water Olympian\u00a0Ashley Twichell\u00a0<\/strong>(8:29.45) placed fourth ahead of fellow open water swimmer\u00a0Erica Sullivan\u00a0<\/strong>(8:30.76) and reigning National champion\u00a0Ally McHugh\u00a0<\/strong>(8:33.24).<\/p>\n