Katie Ledecky Blasts Pool Record, Negative Splits 800 Free

Highlights from day four prelims Sunday at the 2017 arena Pro Swim Series at Atlanta featuring Katie Ledecky, Lilly King, Chase Kalisz, Joseph Schooling, Jack Conger, Ryan Murphy and a lot of other fast swimmers and swimming.

May 7, 2017 by Maclin Simpson

Katie Ledecky Blasts Pool Record, Negative Splits 800 Free

2017 arena Pro Swim Series at Atlanta

Atlanta, GA
May 4-7, 2017
Thursday Timed Finals: 5 PM EST
Prelims Friday - Sunday: 10 AM EST
Finals Friday - Sunday: 7 PM EST
LIVE RESULTS

Day Four Prelims Highlights

Katie Ledecky Blasts Pool Record, Negative Splits 800

Katie Ledecky and coach Greg Meehan have been toying around with race strategies here in Atlanta. Most notably, concentrating on making a push on the back half. Friday night, Ledecky even-split her 4:00.98 400m free. Sunday morning, she negative-split a very impressive 800m freestyle race -- 4:09 on the way out and 4:06 coming home. Either one of those 400m splits would be solid on their own, but Ledecky managed to do them back-to-back in the same race. Of note, her 4:06.61 on the back half would be the sixth-fastest time in the world this year. What?

Chase Kalisz Swims Another Dirty Double

After his impressive 200m butterfly/200m IM double on the final night of Mesa a few weeks ago, Chase Kalisz again swam those two races Sunday morning in Atlanta -- taking the second seed in the 200 fly (1:59.17) and the top seed in the 200 IM (2:01.87). After being known solely as a 400 IMer for most of his career, Kalisz is making a serious push into new territory. He has a legitimate chance of making the U.S. World Championship team in three to four events -- both IM's, 200 fly, and potentially the 200 breast as well.

Lilly King Cruises Through 100 Breast

Due to the NCAA season, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist has been absent from long course competition since Rio. Lilly King chose not to race in Mesa, so Sunday morning in Atlanta was her first 100m breastroke of the 2017 season. King claimed the top seed in prelims with a 1:07.07 -- a very respectable morning swim. After her quick 50 breast on Saturday morning, look for King to dip in the 1:06 low and potentially 1:05 high range tonight.