French swim quartet repeats over US

BARCELONA: The French men did it again, duplicating their Olympic gold with another victory over the United States in a thrilling 400-meter freestyle relay at the world championships.
France was next-to-last after Yannick Agnel’s opening leg, and was still only fourth after a blistering third leg by Fabien Gilot. The US was slightly ahead of the Australians when Anthony Ervin passed it off to anchor Jimmy Feigen.
But Jeremy Stravius closed fast for the French, touching the wall in 3 minutes, 11.18 seconds. The US was next in 3:11.42, while Russia took bronze in 3:11.44. The Aussies faded to fourth.
The Americans did take two victories on the opening night of pool swimming. Katie Ledecky won the women’s 400 free and the US rallied to win the women’s 400 free relay.
Ledecky started a grueling program at the world swimming championships with a dominating win in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.
The 16-year-old Ledecky just missed a world record with a time of 3 minutes, 59.82 seconds Sunday. Italy’s Federica Pelligrini set the mark of 3:59.15 at the 2009 worlds, but that time comes with an asterisk — she was wearing a rubberized suit, and those are no longer allowed.
Ledecky was a breakout performer at last summer’s London Olympics, where she pulled off a stunning victory in the 800 free.
Now, as she gets ready to start 11th grade, she’s become one of the biggest stars on the US team. She’ll also be favored to take gold in the 800 and 1,500 free.
Megan Romano swam a blistering final leg to overhaul Australia’s Alicia Coutts and snatch gold for United States in the 4x100 meters relay.
Romano put up a split time of 52.60 seconds, with only Cate Campbell going quicker with 52.33 leading off for Australia, as the Americans improved on their silver behind Netherlands at the previous championships in Shanghai two years ago.
Australia, Olympic champions in London last year, led until the final 50 meters through Campbell, her sister Bronte and Emma McKeon but Romano was too good for Coutts and touched in three minutes and 32.31 seconds.
The Australians finished in 3:32.43 and Netherlands, who pipped the US to silver in London, were third in 3:35.77 ahead of Sweden.
Olympic champion Sun Yang of China claimed men’s 400m freestyle gold to complete the set of major titles in the event.
Just as he did in the London 2012 final, the 21-year-old Chinese dominated early on in Barcelona to add the 400m world title to the 800m and 1500m freestyle gold medals he won two years ago in Shanghai
Sun clocked 3min 41.59sec, finishing more than three seconds ahead of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who swam 3:44.82, while Connor Jaeger of the USA finished in 3:44.85 to claim third.
“I give thanks to my coach and my parents,” said an emotional Sun, who has moved his training base to Hong Kong in the last year.
“I have been training for this for the past 10 years and it has paid off.”
Sun has had a turbulent 12 months since his London triumph after a row with his coach over the giant swimmer’s love affair with an air stewardess.
Sun, the tall distance specialist from Zhejiang, rejected coach Zhu Zhigen’s demand that he stop seeing his new girlfriend and concentrate on his swimming instead.
Despite a public show of reconciliation with Zhu, Sun has been training in Hong Kong under former Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong.