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08/13 00:58 CDT Katie Ledecky surges to 1,500 free win for her first home-soil international medal Katie Ledecky surges to 1,500 free win for her first home-soil international medal By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer IRVINE, Calif. (AP) --- Katie Ledecky won the 1,500-meter freestyle on opening night of the Pan Pacific Championships, earning the first international medal of her storied career on home soil on Wednesday. The U.S. concluded a dominant night with a world record in the 4 x 100 mixed medley relay. Ledecky, a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500, was under her own world-record pace in the early stages of the 30-lap race, with young fans holding signs at the outdoor pool in Irvine, California, on their feet cheering throughout. Ledecky touched in 15 minutes, 36.09 seconds. Lani Pallister of Australia gave chase early before Ledecky opened a body-length lead over her closest pursuer. Pallister took silver in a personal best 15:38.62. Moesha Johnson of Australia earned bronze. "Not quite the time that I wanted, but again, you can't complain with gold and getting my hand on the wall first," Ledecky said. "It's great to be in an environment like this." In the mixed medley relay, the American team of Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass won in 3:36.70. They beat the old mark of 3:37.43 set by the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Modglin got it started with backstroke before Mathias took over for the breaststroke leg. Walsh handled butterfly and Douglass brought it home on freestyle. "As we were sitting back there for two hours waiting for this race to come, we kind of threw out the idea of breaking a world record," Douglass said. "I love anchoring relays like this. They kind of do all the work for me. I get to just give my all at the end." Australia took silver in 3:39.30. Canada earned bronze. Walsh won the 50 butterfly over Douglass to lead four 1-2 finishes by the United States. Walsh touched in 24.65 seconds, bettering her time of 24.91 from the morning preliminaries. Douglass became the third woman to break the 25-second barrier in the event with a prelim time of 24.99. In the final, she finished second at 25.06. Walsh was already in the sub-25 club, with the American record of 24.51 seconds. The other member is Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who holds the world record of 24.43 seconds. Canada's Taylor Ruck took bronze in 25.23 in the first Pan Pacs held since 2018. It was the first of three bronzes she won Wednesday. The once-every-four-years event was canceled in 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's event was moved from Canada to Southern California to give the region a major international meet ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where swimming will be held at SoFi Stadium in front of nearly 40,000 spectators. Luca Urlando won the 200 butterfly over U.S. teammate Carson Foster. Urlando finished in 1:53.11, breaking the championship record of 1:53.80 set by Michael Phelps at the 2006 Pan Pacs in Vancouver, British Columbia. Phelps then presented medals to Urlando, Foster and third-place Harrison Turner of Australia. "That was like a dream come true," Urlando said. American teammates Katharine Berkoff and world record holder Regan Smith finished 1-2 in the women's 100 backstroke. Berkoff won in 57.93. Smith was second in 58.11, slower than the time of 57.86 she swam in prelims. Ruck earned her second bronze in 58.40. U.S. teammates Luke Hobson and Gabriel Jett finished 1-2 in the men's 200 freestyle. Hobson touched first in 1:43.85 with a stunned Jett second in a personal-best 1:43.96. Zhang Zhanshuo of China was third. Pallister won the women's 200 free in a course-record 1:53.67, beating Canada's Summer McIntosh, who was second at 1:53.86. Erika Fairweather of New Zealand was third. Ben Armbruster of Australia won the men's 50 fly in 22.75 seconds over Van Mathias of the U.S. The Pan Pacs limit each nation to just two swimmers in every championship final as a way to ensure greater representation among countries. That means swimmers can't afford to ease through the morning prelims since a full-on effort could be required to make the evening final. ___ AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

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