Katie Hoff, Olympic silver medallist in the 400m free in Beijing, clocked 4:06.21 over eight laps at the Los Angeles Grand Prix.
The effort was her best since Olympic year and marked the 10th best of her career. "That’s the first time this year my stroke clicked and everything I’ve been working on in the last year has come together," said Hoff, now 7th fastest in the world so far this year.
The minor spoils went to Kate Ziegler (Fairfax, Va.), in 4:09.44, and Canadian Alexa Komarnycky, on 4:10.97. Meet records reflect only the quality of entry in any given year, and Hoff's new meet mark compared to the 4:09.04 of 1996 Olympic champion over 200m, Costa Rica’s Claudia Poll, back in 2000 on her way to more Olympic medals two years before a positive test she disputed ended in suspension.
The 1,500m free was something of a damp squib, the much advertised 1,500m free clash between Olympic champ Oussama Mellouli (TUN) and Olympic bronze medallist Ryan Cochrane (CAN) failing to materialise. On paper, given that the two men raced in different heats, Cochrane retains his world lead in 2010 by a wide margin as the only man to have got below 15mins so far. He also had the edge in LA, a 15:08.13 win over a 15:15.47 for Mateusz Sawrymowicz (POL) comparing to heats times of 15:11.21 and 15.11.22 for Mellouli and Chad La Tourette, respectively. Same pool, no race. Pity. Third place in the "final" went to Yun Hoa (CHN), on 15:18.75, with Britain's US-based Richard Charlesworth 4th in 15:39.07.
World champion Ariana Kukors (Auburn, Wash.) led the 200m medley from go to stopping the clock at 2:11.01. That kept at bay the Hungarian 400m medley world champion and winner of the long medley in LA, Katinka Hosszu, on 2:12.25, third going to Julia Smit in 2:13.00.
"The whole heat was stacked, so I was just excited to be in that race," Kukors said. "I’ll be racing a lot of those same girls in three weeks (at Nationals). I just tried to stay calm and stay relaxed and do the best I could in that moment."
Olympic champion Rebecca Soni (Plainsboro, N.J.) punched out another fine 200m breaststroke effort, in 2:24.89, which fell 0.38sec shy of the 11-year-old meet record of South African double Olympic champion Penny Heyns. In second was Elizabeth Smith (St. Louis, Mo.), on 2:28.75, third Caitlin Leverenz (Tucson, Ariz.), in 2:29.72.
Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash.) continued to be among the most consistent sprinters in the world this year, winning the 50m free in dominant fashion, his 22.11 well up on Bruno Fratus (BRA), 22.82, and William Copeland (Lexington, Va.), 22.89.
Kara Lynn Joyce (Ann Arbor, Mich.) claimed the women's 50m sprint in 25.14, 0.02sec ahead of Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.), third going to Lara Jackson (Tucson, Ariz.), 25.23.
Elsewhere, Michael Klueh (Evansville, Ind.), on 1:49.68 over 200m free got a 0.10sec edge on Canadian Olympian Brian Johns in the 200m free, third going to Charlie Houchin (Raleigh, N.C.) in 1:50.45.
Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.), ranked second in the world on 4:06.96 last year, moved up from 18th to 12th on the 2010 list with a 4:16.37 out-front win over Robert Margalis (St. Petersburg, Fla.), on 4:22.63 and Robert Hommel, on 4:27.64.
Quadruple Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) took the 200m breaststroke in 2:11.14 a league up on Tales Cerdeira (BRA), on 2:13.76, and Michael Alexandrov (Champaign Ill.), on 2:13.88.
The meet and series conclude today.
