Ledecky dominates in 200m free victory in Indianapolis

LOS ANGELES: Katie Ledecky bagged her third victory in three days at the Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis on Friday with a dominant performance in the 200m freestyle.

Ledecky, the five-time Olympic gold medalist who opened her first meet as a professional with a 1,500m free world record on Wednesday, clocked 1min 55.42sec to beat double Olympic champion Simone Manuel by 2.64sec.

Ledecky had opened her evening an hour earlier with a third-place finish in the 400m individual medley won by Melanie Margalis in 4:36.81.

“I’m pretty happy with it coming off the 400m IM,” Ledecky said.

Manuel had won the 50m free shortly before a fierce 200m free final that saw all eight women break two minutes.

Canadian Olympian Taylor Ruck, third in the 50 free, returned shortly thereafter to win the 200m backstroke.

Ruck, who won a recordequalling eight medals at the Commonwealth Games last month, won in 2:08.11, with Asia Seidt second in 2:10.00. It was the 17-year-old Ruck’s second win of the week after her triumph in the 100m free on Thursday.

US Olympian Nathan Adrian added the 50m free title to the 100m free he won on Thursday, clocking 21.97sec to finish ahead of Indiana-based Egyptian Ali Khalafalla (22.14).

“I thought I did a good job of the way I approached it and that’s what we use these meets for is honing in on how we’re going to approach the race,” Adrian said. “Playing around and experimenting is also what makes it fun so we’re doing a little bit of that — just doing our best to not let it get stale.

“It’s a long quad,” he added of the four-year period between Olympics. “Especially as I’m getting a little older — right now I’m really happy where we are.”