Aditi Ashok shoots 66, rises to tied 20th at Black Desert
India’s Aditi Ashok shot one of her best rounds of the season as she landed seven birdies against one bogey in a round of 6-under 66 that carried her up to the tied 20th place in the Black Desert Championship in Ivins, USA. With rounds of 69-71-66, she is 10-under and eight shots behind the leader, Haeran Ryu of Korea, who has shot 63-67-68 to be 18-under. Starting from the first, Aditi began with three pars and then birdied four times between the fourth and the ninth to turn in 4-under. On the back nine Aditi birdied 11th and the 12th and dropped a shot on the 14th and finished with a birdie on the 18th. Aditi, who has been finding the fairways and the green regularly, needed 27 putts as against 31 on the second day. Ryu regained control of the Black Desert Championship by holing out for an eagle on the 11th hole. Her 68 helped her maintain her two-shot lead in the LPGA Tour’s return to Utah for the first time in more than 60 years. Ryu is trying to win a tournament for the seventh straight year, dating to when she was an 18-year-old on the Korea LPGA. Ryu shared the 54-hole lead at a major last week in the Chevron Championship before closing with a 76. Her biggest rival will be Ruoning Yin, the former Women’s PGA champion who ran off 10 birdies for a 62, the best score of the tournament and enough to get within two shots. Esther Henseleit of Germany had a 68 and left her three shots behind.
Nine Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky recreates her own world record in 800 freestyle
American swimmer Katie Ledecky has shattered her own 800m freestyle world record on Saturday. She clocked 8 minutes 4.12 seconds at the Tyr Pro Series meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to better her previous mark of 8:04.79 which she set at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was a tactical race from Ledecky who paced it masterfully surfing ahead through 400m. She ceded her lead at the 450m and 500m but was back in the lead by 550m and a powerful final leg saw her break the world record. The record-breaking swim capped an extraordinary series of performances for Ledecky, who posted her second-fa 400m freestyle time on Thursday. This was her best timing in nine years – and the second-fastest 1500m freestyle time in history on Wednesday. Ledecky’s most recent world record before this was in the 1500m in May 2018 in a 50m pool came into the 1500m freestyle. The 28-year-old holds 15 world records in the 50m pool. At the age of 28, Katie Ledecky is one of the most decorated swimmers in the World and US history. She has won a total of nine Olympic gold medals and 21 World Championship medals. Ledecky is the fifth-most decorated athlete in the Olympic history. Ledecky was one of the surprising stories from the 2012 London Olympics as then 15-year-old surprised everyone by winning the gold medal in the 800m freestyle. Ledecky became the first American female swimmer to win an individual event in three straight Olympics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and emerged as the most decorated U.S. female athlete.
