San Francisco Frontiers - Imperious Ledecky beats McIntosh to win 800m free thriller

Ledecky won her seventh career gold in the event but she was challenged all the way, touching the wall in a championship-record 8min 05.62sec -- a fingertip ahead of Australia's Lani Pallister (8:05.98) and McIntosh (8:07.29).

The race was billed as a potential changing of the guard between the 28-year-old Ledecky and McIntosh, a decade her junior and in red-hot form in Singapore.

Pallister made sure she inserted her own name into the conversation but Ledecky had the final word, winning gold again in an event she has dominated for over a decade.

"This is my favourite event, it was my first gold," said Ledecky, who made her international breakthrough in the event when she won at the London Olympics as a 15-year-old.

"Even in practice, if I'm doing 800s I tell myself that. I kind of have this fake rule -- I don't lose 800s."

It was Canadian sensation McIntosh's first defeat of the championships and ended her bid to match Michael Phelps as the only swimmer ever to win five individual golds at a single world championships.

The 18-year-old has already won three golds this week in Singapore.

Ledecky had too much staying power for her younger rival, with Pallister also in gold-medal contention right until the end.

"They pushed me all the way," said Ledecky, a four-time Olympic champion in the event.

"I'm just really happy I could put that together. I just kept telling myself to trust my legs."

- 'I hate losing' -

The eagerly anticipated race began with Ledecky, Pallister and McIntosh all setting a fast pace, with little between them in the opening stages.

The lead changed hands several times but Ledecky, swimming between her two rivals, looked best-placed to strike for home.

In the end it was the American celebrating with her country's flag on the pool deck after an epic race.

"I just knew it was close the whole way, there were times where I thought someone was going to break away," said Ledecky.

"I was just happy I was up there. You never know when you dive in what everyone's tactics are going to be."

McIntosh is relatively new to the 800m freestyle but she threatened Ledecky's world record at the Canadian trials in June.

She has another chance to add to her gold tally on the final day in Singapore on Sunday in the 400m individual medley, an event in which she broke the world record in June.

"I hate losing more than I like winning and I think that's a mentality that I carried with myself through my entire career -- and that's my hand on the wall first most of the time," she said.

"The feeling right now is something I never want to feel again."

V.Mitchell--SFF