American teenager Katie Ledecky broke her second world record in less than 24 hours while Michael Phelps suffered a rare defeat at the Pan Pacific championships in Australia on Sunday.
Ledecky hacked almost six seconds off her 1,500 metres freestyle world mark, which she set in Texas in June, when she charged through the 30-lap event in 15 minutes, 28.36 seconds.
The 17-year-old finished almost half a minute ahead of her nearest rival -- an almost unimaginable margin in a sport where medals are often decided by hundredths of seconds – to collect her fifth title of the championships. Ledecky broke her 400M world record on Saturday and came within a whisker of eclipsing her 800m world best on Thursday.
Phelps picked up his third gold medal of the meet when he helped the US win the men's 4x100M medley relay after he was surprisingly beaten in the 200M individual medley, an event he had won at the last three Olympics.
Still struggling to find his best, Phelps was touched out by Japan's Kosuke Hagino, who got his hand on the wall first in 1:56.02 to claim his second gold after also winning the 400 IM.
Lochte won the consolation final in the same time as Hagino won the main event to join Phelps in the American team for next year's world championships in Russia, but didn't get a medal. Japan also won both 200M breaststroke finals with Yasuhiro Koseki taking out the men's race and teenager Kanako Watanabe clinching the women's.
