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Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus and Yui Ohashi all win women’s swimming gold medals in the pool on Wednesday.

TOKYO, July 28 (Xinhua) — Katie Ledecky rebounded from disappointment earlier in the day to become the first ever Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 1500m freestyle, winning in 15:37.34 here on Wednesday morning.

Ledecky’s U.S. teammate Erica Sullivan claimed silver in 15:41.41, and Sarah Kohler took bronze for Germany in 15:42.91. Wang Jianjiahe of China ranked fourth with 15:46.37.

“I’m so happy to go one-two with Erica. It is the first women’s 1500m [freestyle in Olympic history] so I couldn’t have a better outcome than that. I’m so, so happy,” said Ledecky.

Earlier this morning, Ledecky had failed to continue her golden streak in the women’s 200m freestyle, finishing only fifth.

“After the 200m, I knew I had to turn the page very quickly and in the warm-down pool I was just thinking of my family. Each stroke I was thinking of my grandparents. They’re the toughest four people I know and that’s what helped me get through that,” Ledecky replied on her emotions after crying with joy in the pool.

Making its debut on the Olympic programme in Tokyo, the women’s 1500m freestyle has featured at the World Championships since 2001. Current world record holder Ledecky has won the most world titles in this event, taking gold in 2013, 2015 and 2017, before withdrawing because of illness in 2019.

Ariarne Titmus won gold for Australia in the women’s 200m freestyle, setting a new Olympic record of 1:53.50. Australia has now won three Olympic gold medals in the women’s 200m freestyle, also doing so in 1972 and 2000.

Siobhan Bernadette Haughey from Hong Kong, China finished second to notch Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic swimming medal. Penny Oleksiak took bronze for Canada, while Yang Junxuan of China finished fourth.

“I’m really happy and really excited. I worked hard for this for the last five years. The medal means so much,” Haughey said.

Yui Ohashi won the women’s 200m individual medley gold for Japan in 2:08.52. Having won the women’s 400m individual medley on 25 July, she became the first Japanese woman to win two gold medals at a single Olympic Games, and also the first Japanese woman to win two Olympic golds in swimming.

Alex Walsh claimed silver for the United States, with teammate Kate Douglas taking bronze.

15-year-old Yu Yiting of China finished fifth, with world record holder Katinka Hosszu only ranking seventh.

Fresh from a silver medal in Monday’s women’s 100m butterfly, Zhang Yufei of China eased into the women’s 200m butterfly final, coming first in her semifinal in 2:04.89.

Hali Flickinger of the USA qualified second to Zhang with a time of 2:06.23, with Zhang’s compatriot Yu Liyan also qualifying for the final.

Britain won its first Olympic gold medal in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay in a time of 6:58.58. The Russian Olympic Committee team and Australia took silver (7:01.81) and bronze (7:01.84) respectively.

Izaac Stubblety-Cook of Australia topped the finalists in the men’s 200m breaststroke with 2:07.35.

Kristof Milak of Hungary added an Olympic gold to his world title and world record in the men’s 200m butterfly, posting a time of 1:51.25 for a new Olympic record despite an unwanted distraction just before the start

“My suit tore 10 minutes before the start of the race, just before entering the call room. At that moment I knew that the world record was gone, because I was totally off focus,” said Milak.

Milak won the men’s 200m butterfly at the 2019 Worlds in a world record time of 1:50.73, becoming the only person to swim the stroke at that distance in under one minute and 51 seconds.

Tomoru Honda won Japan a silver at 1:53.75, while bronze went to Italy’s Federico Burdisso in 1:54.45.

Kliment Kolesnikov of the Russian Olympic Committee team led the finalists at 47.11 seconds in the men’s 100m freestyle. The winning time in this event at Rio 2016 was 47.58. Caeleb Dressel of the USA ranked second, followed by Italy’s Alessandro Miressi.