Rebecca Adlington wins women's 800m Freestyle gold with WR

Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain broke the women's 800m Freestyle world record at the Beijing Olympic Games today. Adlington clocked in a time of 8:14.10 to break the previous world mark of 8:16.22 set by American Janet Evans on August 20, 1989 - the year Adlington was born.


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Adlington qualified fastest for the final and took the race out hard from the start. She was consistently under the world record pace by around 2 seconds throughout her swim, including by 2.22 seconds at the 400m. By the 600m mark she had stretched her lead on the world record by 2.52 seconds.


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Adlington kept up the pace in the final 200m, finally touching in 8:14.10 to knock an incredible 2.12 seconds off Evans' 19-year-old old world mark. Underlining her form and confidence at these Games, Adlington finished an impressive 6.13 seconds ahead of the second finisher and 8.93 seconds ahead of the bronze winner.

Adlington has enjoyed an incredible Olympic Games after winning in a surprise on Monday in the Women's 400m Freestyle final by beating the "Female Phelps", Katie Hoff of USA.

Alessia Filippi of Italy won the silver medal in a time of 8:20.23.

Lotte Friis of Denmark won the bronze medal in a time of 8:23.03.

Defending Olympic champion Shibata Ai of Japan failed to qualify. World champion Kate Ziegler of USA also failed to qualify for the final.


(Photo credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)