American swimmer Gretchen Walsh set her 10th world record at the world short course championships with gold in the 50-meter freestyle final before adding an 11th as part of the winning U.S. team in the women’s 4×100 medley relay on Sunday.
Walsh finished the 50 free at Budapest’s Duna Arena in 22.83 seconds, .22 ahead of fellow American Kate Douglass in second.
Walsh later extended her world record total to 11 — nine individual and two in relays — when the United States, comprised of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Walsh and Douglass, won the relay in 3 minutes, 40.41 seconds. That started with Smith’s backstroke lead-off leg of 54.02 seconds, also a world record.
Smith also had a world-record time of 1:58:04 to win the women’s 200 backstroke final, and her compatriot Luke Hobson took gold in the men’s 200 free with 1:38.61, also a world record.
Organizers said a record total of 30 world records were set at the championships.
A world record was also set in the men’s 4×100 medley relay by Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev, competing as neutral athletes, in 3:18.68.
The 25-meter pool is half the length of an Olympic pool.
