World Swimming Championships: Carlin's bronze & Ledecky's record

Jazz Carlin won European gold in the 800m freestyle in 2014

Great Britain's Jazz Carlin won an 800m women's freestyle bronze as American Katie Ledecky set a new world record in the race at the World Championships.

Carlin was battling for third at the halfway mark and secured a medal with a time of eight minutes 18.15 seconds.

But Ledecky's time of 8:07.39 stole the headlines as she knocked nearly four seconds off her own previous mark.

"I'm over the moon," Carlin said. "I didn't realise how fast Katie was going but to go 8:07.39 is incredible."

The victory gave Ledecky, 18, her fifth gold medal of the championships in Kazan, Russia as she became the first swimmer to win the freestyle sweep of 200, 400, 800 and 1500m titles to go along with her gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Wales swimmer Carlin finally got her hands on a medal after the 24-year-old finished fourth in the 400m freestyle on the opening night of the championships and also in Barcelona two years ago.

She finished less than a second behind silver medallist Lauren Boyle of New Zealand and her bronze also took Great Britain's tally to a record nine medals at a World Championships with less than a year to go until the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"It's been a tough road. This is my first 800 world championships final, so to come away with a bronze medal is looking in the right direction for next year," Carlin said.

Britain now stand third in the overall medals table behind the United States and Australia with five gold, one silver and three bronze medals going into Sunday's final day.

Elsewhere, Fran Halsall qualified for the women's 50m freestyle final, while Liam Tancock secured a place in the men's 50m backstroke final.

"I've no expectations," Halsall said. "I've just come to see what I can do and see how close I can get to everyone else with a limited season in terms of what I wanted to do in training.

Tancock was third in his semi-final.

"I've had the best starts I've ever had in these world championships. I'm 30 and doing some of the best skills I have ever done," he said.

"I'm pretty excited about the final. There are a lot of world champions in that field and who knows what will happen but I have got a lane and got a chance."