BARCELONA (Reuters) - American teenager Katie Ledecky set a world record to win the women's 800 meters freestyle gold medal at the world championships on Saturday and complete a rare treble of distance titles.
The 16-year-old, who smashed the 1,500 meters world best to win gold on Tuesday and also won Sunday's 400 meters, clocked a time of eight minutes 13.86 seconds at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.
She was inside the previous best of 8:14.10 set by Rebecca Adlington to win gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
It was her fourth title of the week - she also swam in the winning U.S. 4x200 freestyle relay team - and she is only the second woman to win all three distance freestyle titles at a single world championships.
Dane Lotte Friis, who finished second to Ledecky in the 1,500, took 800 silver in 8:16.32 and Lauren Boyle of New Zealand, also third in the 400 and 1,500, won the bronze in a time of 8:18.58.