IRVINE (California): Kate Douglass continued her assault on the 50m freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking a stunning 23.19sec to win Pan Pacific Cham­pionships gold with her second world mark of the day.

The American sliced three-tenths of a second off the world record of 23.49sec she set hours earlier in the heats in Irvine, California.

That broke the world record of 23.55sec set by fellow American Gretchen Walsh on June 28 in Rome -- where Walsh broke the world mark that Douglass had set on June 19.

Douglass finished a whopping 55-hundredths of a second ahead of Walsh, who took silver in 23.74sec. Australia’s reigning world champion Meg Harris was third in 23.89.

Douglass returned less than half an hour later to claim silver in the 200m breaststroke won by Canadian Alexanne LePage in 2:21.73.

Douglass, the reigning world and Olympic champion in the event, closed strong to finish second in 2:22.57.

Australian Jamie Jack won the men’s 50m free in 21.35sec and Zac Stubblety-Cook rallied from fourth at the final turn to win the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:08.09 and give Australia another gold in the four-day meeting that brings together top swimmers from non-European countries.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Lani Pallister dealt US great Katie Ledecky her first 800m freestyle defeat in a major international meet, beating her one-time idol.

Pallister led wire-to-wire on the way to victory in 8min 06.10sec and for the first time ever in the event Ledecky’s late charge wasn’t enough and she finished second in 8:07.26.

Ledecky has dominated the 800m since she won Olympic gold in 2012 as a 15-year-old, winning 13 international golds since then. That includes four Olympic medals and seven world titles in the event.

The Australian punched the water in delight after the win and got a hug over the lane rope from Ledecky. She paid tribute to the American in a post-race interview.

“Katie is such a dominant force and I think it’s really important we give her a big round of a hand,” she said. “Without her, we wouldn’t have women’s distance swimming in the place we’re at at the moment.

“To be part of that story at the moment (it’s) pretty much all because we get to chase Katie.”

Chinese Olympian Yu Yiting started the night with an upset of world record-holder Summer McIntosh in the 200m medley, leading most of the way and holding off the Canadian’s charge on the final freestyle leg to win in 2:07.45.

McIntosh, the reigning world and Olympic champion, was third after the penultimate breaststroke leg and her late charge wasn’t quite enough as she settled for silver in 2:07.47. She overhauled American Alex Walsh, who finished third in 2:07.66.

Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita completed a men’s medley double with a 200m victory in 1:56.02.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026