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Canadian teenage sensation Taylor Ruck has been on a huge high in 2018. She won the Commonwealth Games gold in the 200 free in April with her 1:54.81 in Australia, and she just took down perhaps the greatest swimmer ever in Katie Ledecky in the 200 free on the first night of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo. Ruck, just 18, had the second fastest time in the world behind the seemingly invincible Ledecky.
Ledecky got her Pan Pacs started with a win in the 800 free. She was off her best time but she still was on form and it was looking unlikely she would be challenged this week. Last year’s defeat at the World Championships seemed to be a fluke.
Ruck went out fast in the 200 free with Ledecky right with her, but the future Stanford Cardinal held her own and actually pulled away a bit from the Olympic Champion on the last 50.
Ruck won the gold medal with a 1:54.44 for a new meet record. Ledecky set that meet record this morning with a 1:55.16. Ledecky ended up fading to bronze with Japan’s Rikako Ikee finishing in second at 1:54.85. Ledecky finished in third at 1:55.15.
Ruck and Ikee both broke their national records, with Ruck lowering her 1:54.81 and Ikee lowering her own 1:55.04 from earlier this year.
Ruck now has the world’s fastest time with her 1:54.44. She moved ahead of Ledecky’s 1:54.56 from Santa Clara as Ikee is now tied for third with Australian Ariarne Titmus.
Ruck is also now fifth all-time in the 200 free with Ikee now tied for eleventh.
Allison Schmitt (1:56.71), Kayla Sanchez (1:57.23), Mikkayla Sheridan (1:57.48), Chihiro Igarashi (1:57.83) and Brianna Throssell (1:59.26) also competed in the A-Final.
2018 World Rankings:
- Taylor Ruck, CAN, 1:54.44
- Katie Ledecky, USA, 1:54.56
- Ariarne Titmus, AUS, 1:54.85
- Rikako Ikee, JPN, 1:54.85
- Charlotte Bonnet, FRA, 1:54.95
- Allison Schmitt, USA, 1:55.82
- Veronika Popova, RUS, 1:56.07
- Femke Heemskerk, NED, 1:56.11
All-Time Rankings:
- Federica Pellegrini, ITA, 1:52.98 (2009)
- Allison Schmitt, USA, 1:53.61 (2012)
- Katie Ledecky, USA, 1:53.73 (2016)
- Sarah Sjostrom, SWE, 1:54.08 (2016)
- Taylor Ruck, CAN, 1:54.44 (2018)
- Camille Muffat, FRA, 1:54.66 (2012)
- Femke Heemskerk, NED, 1:54.68 (2015)
- Missy Franklin, USA, 1:54.81 (2013)
Photo Courtesy:
Craig Mathieson Ross Mathieson
Go get ’em Taylor!!
Omg fabulous Taylor! Congratulations!
Wow
Wow. Well done. You make Canada proud???
Zachary Jones Aaron Wands
Anna Pastuszak
YAY Taylor!
Nicole Matheson
Brilliant win. This is the one event Ledecky isn’t unbeatable in as was seen in Budapest last year.
Yep. Love Ledecky but ready for some challengers
Agree. It will be interesting to see will she stick to the 200m by the time Tokyo comes about. Pellegrini will be there and Sjostrom might even race the 200m like she did in Rio. Sjostrom may go into it as there is no 50m butterfly in the Olympics. Even Bonnet in the Euros this week would have finished ahead of Ledecky here. Plus, the 1500m is now an Olympic event where it wasn’t in the past. It’s hard to go up against this level of competition when doing all these distance events. She tired very badly in the last 50m in this race. I still see her dominating away in 400m, 800m, 1500m, although Li Bingjie come be an eventual challenger.
Awesome race! Congratulations!
Great swim congrats!!’
So happy for her – many congrat’s !!!!
Katie needs to go back and train with Bruce
Colin Ruck