Pan Pacific Championships, Day 3 Finals: Lani Pallister Holds Off Katie Ledecky in 400 Free, Continues Stretch of Gold Medals
When this summer championship season concludes, Lani Pallister will end up among the most decorated performers from this stretch of regional competition. Pallister captured four gold medals and one silver at the Commonwealth Games last month, and now she has earned her third gold in three days at the Pan Pacific Championships, going wire-to-wire to defeat Katie Ledecky in the 400 freestyle.
The two swimmers had previously met in the 1500 free on day one, with Ledecky winning by two seconds, but Pallister notched a victory in the 200 free before leading Australia to gold in the 800 free relay. In the 400, the 24-year-old Australian adopted a daring strategy, choosing to show her cards early and force Ledecky to chase her. The strategy paid off.
Pallister blasted under world-record pace from the beginning, going up more than a second on Ledecky after 50 meters and two seconds after three lengths. The lead eventually reached 2.48 seconds at the halfway point. Ledecky cut into that gap over the third quarter of the race, but Pallister had an extra gear waiting for the final 100 meters.
Pallister split 29.51 on the way home to put away the gold medal, and she finished in 3:58.42 for the fastest time in the world this year. Pallister knocked almost a half-second off her previous best of 3:58.87 set at last year’s World Championships, and she remained the fifth-fastest performer in history. Among Australians, only two-time Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus has a quicker time.
Ledecky finished second in 4:00.15, her third medal of the meet after winning gold in the 1500 and taking silver with the American team in the 800 free relay. Ledecky fell well short of her best time this year, a 3:59.02 from April. Bronze went to Erika Fairweather in 4:02.35, the New Zealand swimmer reaching the podium for the second time at Pan Pacs after four individual podium finishes at the Commonwealth Games.
Just over a second off the podium was American Kennedi Dobson, who finished in 4:03.56 to crush her best time. She entered with a top mark of 4:06.11 before going 4:05.10 in prelims and then dropping another 1.54 seconds in the evening.
The final went off without McIntosh, the world-record holder in the 400 free who missed the championship final after clocking 4:08.56 in prelims. The Canadian star miscalculated what would be required to advance to the championship heat, and she ended up two tenths behind eighth-place finisher Fan Yaqi. McIntosh did swim in the consolation final in the evening, cruising to the top spot in 4:00.58 after briefly threatening her own world-record pace in the opening 100 meters.
Entering the meet, McIntosh held the world’s fastest time for 2026 at 3:58.91, a mark she achieved at the Fort Lauderdale Open in late April, but Pallister took over that spot in her victorious effort, and she appears on track to maintain that spot through the end of 2026.
