TOKYO: American swimmers completed a brutal Pan Pacific demolition job on their rivals Sunday by winning seven out of 10 gold medals on the final day of the pool competition.

Cate Campbell led the resistance as the Aussie darling won the women’s 50m freestyle before producing an astonishing anchor leg in the 4x100m medley relay to finish with five gold medals.

Katie Ledecky scooped her third gold of the event by pulverising the field in the women’s 1,500m free.

The American world record holder touched the wall in 15:38.97.

The US finished the pool competition with 18 gold medals, 10 more than Australia with Japan third on 6.

American Kathleen Baker captured gold in the women’s 200m backstroke in 2:06.14, tipping out Ruck, who took silver for her fifth medal of the week.

Zane Grothe beat fellow American Jordan Wilimovsky to win the men’s 800m free in a championship best 7:43.74.

Olympic champion Ryan Murphy made it four out of four on the night for the Americans by dominating the men’s 200m backstroke, winning in a meet best 1:53.57 to complete the 100-200m double.

Campbell stopped the rot as the Australian defended her title in the women’s 50m free, winning in a Pan Pacific record of 23.81 from American Simone Manuel (24.22) and countrywoman Emma McKeon (24.34).

Normal service was resumed when Michael Andrew ambushed world champion Caeleb Dressel to win the men’s 50m freestyle, giving the US their fifth gold of the night.

Andrew clocked 21.46, almost half a second clear of Dressel.

Micah Sumrall made it six out of seven for the US as she stormed to victory in the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2:21.88.

Japan struck a blow for the underdog as world record holder Ippei Watanabe win gold in a meet best of 2:07.75.

Having won individual gold in the 100m free, Campbell crushed it on the anchor leg of the women’s 4x100m medley to blow past Manuel and bring the Australians home in 3:52.74, just edging out the American favourites.

Nathan Adrian edged Japan’s Katsumi Nakamura in a rousing finale to give the Americans gold number seven by just five hundredths in the men’s medley relay.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2018