Hosszu eyes Ye Shiwen's 400m IM world record

Ye Shiwen's remarkable women's 400m individual medley world record from the London Olympics could fall at the world championships on Sunday, if Hungary's 'Iron Lady' Katinka Hosszu has her way.

China's Ye set a sensational time of four minutes, 28.43 seconds to win the 2012 Olympic final as she swam the last 50m faster than male counterpart Ryan Lochte of the USA, who won the men's race.

Hosszu lived up to her nickname on Monday by breaking the six-year-old world record in winning the 200m IM final at the world championships.

The previous mark had been set in the era of the now-banned neoprene suits and Hosszu is hoping to finish her Kazan campaign with another gold and world record in Sunday's 400m IM final.

She was the fastest out of the morning's heats in 4:32.78 -- 2.82secs faster than her nearest rival.
"It was a good swim and I’m happy with that," said Hosszu, although her heat time was more than four seconds slower than Ye's world record.

The 19-year-old Ye failed to qualify for the evening's final after finishing 15th fastest overall -- 10.18secs slower than Hosszu's time.

Having finished last in Monday's 200m IM final, the Chinese will again leave her second world championships since London without a medal to her name after also flopping in Barcelona two years ago.

"World records are something we always look at and I have been chasing world records all the time," said Hosszu.

"It is the ultimate goal and let’s see how much faster I can go tonight.

"Hopefully I will be faster than my fastest time this season (4:31.07 in June).

"It’s going to be really tough and there have been swimmers who have been waiting for this day, but I think I will be focused and ready to go."

The curtain will fall on Kazan's world championships on Sunday night with Sun Yang facing a battle to retain his 1500m freestyle world crown.

China's long-distance expert only qualified for the final third fastest behind Italy’s rising star Gregorio Paltrinieri, but remains the name to beat having already retained his 400 and 800m world titles.

There will be a mouth-watering clash in the women’s 50m breaststroke as Ruta Meilutyte squares off against Russian rival Yuliya Efimova.

Having only completed a 16-month ban in March after traces of a steroid were found in her system, Efimova snatched Meilutyte's world crown in Tuesday's 100m final.

Meilutyte, the Olympic champion, refused to comment on Efimova's victory, other than saying she was 'disappointed', and the pair will battle it out again in the sprint final.

And Australia’s Mitch Larkin bids for a third backstroke gold in the men's 50m sprint having already secured the 100 and 200m world titles in Kazan.
Source: AFP