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USA’s Leah Smith certainly woke the fans up this morning at the World University Games with a blistering time in the women’s 400-meter free as she blasted her lifetime best and crushed the meet record.
Smith raced her way to a sizzling time of 4:04.66 in prelims, crushing Federica Pellegrini’s 2007 meet record of 4:06.11. That’s also way faster than Smith’s lifetime best of 4:06.28 from last summer’s nationals.
Smith vaulted to fourth in the world with this morning’s swim.
400 Free World rankings
[table “” not found /]Smith is definitely serving notice that she’s up to the task to be America’s second line of defense behind Katie Ledecky in terms of the middle to distance freestyle in the U.S.
Italy’s Martina De Memme qualified well behind with a 4:11.24 for the second seed, while USA’s Lindsay Vrooman posted a third-seeded 4:11.96.
Japan’s Asami Chida (4:13.85), Australia’s Kiah Melverton (4:14.20), Poland’s Justyna Burska (4:15.00), Italy’s Martina Caramignoli (4:16.29) and Canada’s Barbara Rojas-Jardin (4:17.97) also made the finale.
SCHEDULED EVENTS
- Women’s 400 free
- Women’s 200 breast
- Men’s 100 free
- Women’s 100 fly
- Women’s 800 free relay
NO LIVE STREAM DURING PRELIMS
Katie who?
She was no slouch @. NCAAs and under Augie’s expert tutelage has continued to improve.
Next stop: Rio?
The folly of having trials a year before the event.