Brave Boyle Secures Her Fifth Medal & Oceania Record

A daring plan perfectly executed has led to a silver medal for Lauren Boyle in the 800m freestyle on the penultimate night of finals at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

While American Katie Ledecky stormed off to a world record, Boyle pushed clear of the other chasers with a bold early move, opening a three second buffer at one stage and fighting off the challengers in the final 100m to secure the silver medal.

It is her fifth world championship medal, which means the 27 year old now has half of the 10 medals New Zealand swimmers have won at the championships over more than 40 years.

More importantly her silver medal in the 800m freestyle tonight, the longest distance in the pool in the Olympic Games, gives the New Zealander a real boost towards her medal chances for Rio next year.

It was again a race within a race as the phenomenon that is Ledecky continued in a stratosphere of her own, smashing her own world record to win in 8:07.39, nearly two seconds inside her previous mark, and in doing so become the first person to win four freestyle titles from 200m to 1500m at the same world championship.

Boyle produced a mini-Ledecky move, immediately pushing clear in to second, and at the 400m mark the gap was two seconds to main chasers Jaz Carlin (GBR), who beat her at the Commonwealth Games at this distance, Jessica Ashwood (AUS) and Lotte Friis (DEN). At the 500m mark the gap was closer to three seconds and while the fast finishing Carlin and Ashwood closed, Boyle had more than enough in the tank.

Her time of 8:17.65 took a second off her own New Zealand record and gives her the Oceania record as well.

The plan was hatched with her coach Denis Cotterell at their Gold Coast training base with help from New Zealand coach Graeme Laing.

“Lauren has been training for this race. It is the way it needed to be set-up. We knew she would need a buffer on the fast girls and her training with Denis has been with this plan in mind,” said Graeme Laing.

“It was a fantastic swim, a courageous swim and she did it perfectly. Lauren has trained so hard for this and it was really good practice for her as she looks ahead to Rio.”

Laing said Boyle has had the benefit of Cotterell’s guidance in Kazan, where he is a member of the Australian coaching team.

Boyle will have tomorrow off but then flies out immediately for sponsor obligations before heading to Paris to compete in the FINA World Cup meet next weekend.

Earlier national champion Nathan Capp produced a respectable performance to finish 21^st fastest in heats of the 1500m freestyle in 15:17.77, just two seconds outside his national record.

Capp, part of Swimming New Zealand’s High Performance Squad, was on national record pace to the 1100m mark but his pace slowed a fraction before finishing strongly over the final 100m.

The 23 year old will now re-set his focus for tomorrow’s final day, when he competes in the 400m individual medley. The other New Zealanders in action will be the men’s 4x100m medley relay combination.

Finals Result:

Women’s 800m freestyle: Katie Ledecky (USA) 8:07:39, 1 (World record); Lauren Boyle (NZL) 8:17:65, 2 (NZ & Oceania Record); Jaz Carlin (GBR) 8:18:15, 3.

CAPTION: Lauren Boyle with Jaz Carlin (left) and Katie Ledecky. (The image is free for editorial use only. Credit: Ian Macnicol).