US Olympic great Katie Ledecky has claimed her second gold medal in Tokyo taking out the 800m freestyle, while Ariarne Titmus won silver.<\/p>\n
Titmus, racing from lane six, pushed all the way and was within a body length in the closing laps but it was Ledecky, who led from start to finish, continuing her dominance in the 16-lap event with her final swim in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Ledecky became the first female swimmer to capture six individual gold medals in her career and hasn't since an 800m race since 2010.<\/p>\n
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Ledecky, the two-time defending Olympic gold medalist in the 800m, came into the final almost two seconds quicker than her nearest rival and was a cut above the field, winning in a time of 8:12:57.<\/p>\n
The American has recorded the 24 fastest times in the event's history and owns the world and Olympic record of 8:04.79 \u2014 set in Rio five years ago.<\/p>\n
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Titmus was gunning for a rare 200-400-800m treble but will now add silver to her tally.<\/p>\n
Ledecky lost her first two individual matchups with Titmus, but finally beat her in her signature event.<\/p>\n
"The 800 is the one that was kind of like a bonus, this is a much tougher field for me," Titmus said after the race.<\/p>\n
"I knew I had to hurt tonight, I tried to reel her back in at the end. I did my best, I'm pretty happy with a PB."<\/p>\n
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Simona Quadarella won bronze for Italy, while Australian Kiah Melverton came sixth.<\/p>\n
The win secured Ledecky's fourth medal at the Games, after winning the first-ever women's 1500m freestyle and two silvers, in the 4x200m freestyle relay and 400m freestyle' the latter of which was her first-ever individual loss at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
MORE TO FOLLOW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"