American Kate Douglass reclaims 50m freestyle world record

American Kate Douglass celebrates her 50m freestyle world record at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California (Sean M. Haffey) Kate Douglass shattered the women's 50m freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking 23.49sec in the heats at the Pan Pacific Championships to set a tantalizing showdown with former record-holder Gretchen Walsh. Douglass improved on the world mark of 23.55sec that fellow-American Walsh set on June 28 at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome. Walsh's mark had improved on the world record of 23.59 that Douglass herself had set on June 19 -- and Douglass said that she believed she could still improve technically. "I definitely wasn't expecting that," Douglass told Swimming World magazine. "I still think there are things I could clean up." Douglass's impressive performance came little more than 12 hours after she delivered the second-fastest 100m freestyle in history swimming the lead-off leg on the United States's victorious 4x100m free relay. She touched the wall in 51.69sec -- one one-hundredth outside the 100m free world record set by Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands in June. "I think barely missing a world record last night kind of fueled me a little bit, and I know I wanted to go in and break the world record today -- and I did it this morning," Douglass said. "I am more rested than when I broke the world record the first time, and I have been amped up." Saturday's 50m free final promises fireworks. Walsh, swimming in the last heat after Douglass broke her record, touched in 23.78, the second-quickest of the morning. Australian Meg Harris, who ran down Walsh to win the 100m free on Thursday, was third-fastest in 24.22. Douglass is also slated for another individual swim on the final night of the four-day meeting, which brings together top swimmers from non-European nations. The American, who is the second-fastest performer in history in the 200m breaststroke, qualified second-fastest for that final behind Japan's Kotomi Kato. bb/nf