{"id":650437,"date":"2026-08-12T21:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=650437"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T05:35:46","slug":"pan-pacific-championships-night-one-finals-sam-short-adds-800-free-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/pan-pacific-championships-night-one-finals-sam-short-adds-800-free-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Pan Pacific Championships Night One Finals: Sam Short Adds 800 Free Gold to ‘Best Year’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pan Pacific Championships Night One Finals: Sam Short Adds 800 Free Gold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam Short<\/strong> is putting together another outstanding summer. He added to it with one more gold medal Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Short went 7:37.02 Wednesday night to win the men\u2019s 800 free at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.<\/p>\n

It gives Short the two fastest performances in the world this year. This one at the Woollett Aquatic Center was peerless, taking down Zane Grothe\u2019s<\/strong> meet record from 2014 by 6.72 seconds. He was precisely 5.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Bobby Finke.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s with good reason that\u2019s he\u2019s called this, \u201cprobably the best year I\u2019ve ever put together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt great,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt really good warming up. \u2026 I beat the Europeans that swam early today. I was pretty fired up to try and do that. And I’m really excited to race them next year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s two Aussies on the podium, with Benjamin Goedemans<\/strong> third in 7:44.67.<\/p>\n