BARCELONA — American teenager Katie Ledecky has smashed the world record in the 1,500 freestyle for her second gold medal at the World Swimming Championships. The 16-year-old just missed the world record in the 400 freestyle, but there was no doubt it would fall in the 1,500. Ledecky and defending world champion Lotte Friis went at it stroke for stroke much of the race, the Danish swimmer slightly ahead. But Ledecky edged out front at the 1,300 mark and began to pull away, looking as strong at the end as she did at the beginning. Her time of 15 minutes, 36.53 seconds beat the previous mark by more than 6 seconds — Kate Ziegler's 15:42.54 in 2007. Friis also beat the old record, 15:38.88, but it was only for silver. Teenage Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte won the 100m breaststroke gold with Russia's Yuliya Efimova second and Jessica Hardy of the USA third. Having set a new world record on Monday night, the 16-year-old Meilutyte, from Lithuania, touched the wall at 1min 04.42secs, just seven hundredths of a second outside her own record, with Efimova at 0.60sec back and Hardy 1.10 adrift. Earlier, Missy Franklin won her second gold medal here, pulling away for an easy victory in the 100-meter backstroke. There was no time to celebrate, however. Franklin shook the water out of her ears, gave a brief hug to silver medalist Emily Seebohm, and hustled off to get ready for the semifinal of the 200 freestyle. The winning time was 58.42 seconds. Seebohm, of Australia, was next in 59.06, with the bronze medal going to Japan's Aya Terakawa in 59.23. Franklin is trying to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to claim eight gold medals at a major championship. She is now 2 for 2 at the Palau Sant Jordi, adding to her gold in the 4x100 free relay. In the first event of the night, Yannick Agnel of France blew away the field — Ryan Lochte included — in the 200 freestyle. The big Frenchman pushed the pace right from the start and only seemed to get stronger as everyone else labored to keep up. He touched in 1 minute, 44.20 seconds, a full body length ahead, setting off another wild celebration from the large French contingent in the crowd. The Americans did pick up a medal, but not necessarily from the swimmer they expected. Conor Dwyer, a friend and former training partner of Phelps, took the silver in 1:45.32. Danila Izotov of Russia claimed bronze in 1:45.59. Lochte labored to the finish in fourth place, 0.05 off to the podium. “It wasn't my night,” Lochte said. “But I have to put it behind me because I still have many races to swim.” Americans Cesilie Carlton and Ginger Huber finished 1-2 in the inaugural high diving competition. Plunging from 20 meters — the equivalent of a seven-story building — off a temporary platform into Barcelona's harbor, Carlton impressed the judges with her final dive, a triple half pike, and move up from third after the second of three rounds. Carlton won gold with a total of 211.60 points, Huber had 206.70 and Anna Bader of Germany took bronze with 203.90. Only six women competed. — Agencies
