Home UVA alum Leah Smith captures gold with 4x200m freestyle relay team
Sports

UVA alum Leah Smith captures gold with 4x200m freestyle relay team

Contributors

Former Virginia swimmer Leah Smith (Class 2017) earned a gold medley with the 4x200m freestyle relay team in the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday (July 27).

leah smith uvaSmith swam the opening leg for the U.S. relay team, finishing first with teammates Mallory Comerford, Melanie Margalis and Katie Ledecky, respectively, with a time of 7:43.39. With a personal-best performance of 1:55.97, Smith held the second fastest opening swim, putting the U.S. in second place, behind Russia by two-hundredths of a second.

China recorded the silver medal with a time of 7:44.96, while Australia finished third with a time of 7:48.51.

This was Smith’s second medal of the meet after finishing second in Sunday’s 400m freestyle.

Former men’s swimmer Yannick Kaeser (Class of 2016) also competed on Thursday, breaking a Swiss record in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:11.00 in the preliminary race. His performance advanced him to the semifinals where he finished 16th with a time of 2:12.19.

Smith will compete in the 800m freestyle on Friday (July 28).

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.