Ledecky tops Smith again in 400 meters
SANTA CLARA » Olympians Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith have made a splash in the women’s distance swimming scene. Their performance Sunday night at the TYR Pro Series at Santa Clara was no different.
Ledecky and Smith, who came in first and second Saturday in the 800 meters freestyle, repeated those results Sunday in the 400 freestyle. Ledecky finished in 4:00.51, four seconds faster than Smith (4:04.72) on the final day of the meet at the George F. Haines International Swim Center.
“We’re always (racing) in those events, and now we’re both on team TYR and can go one-two for team TYR,” Ledecky said of signing a pro contract with the same company as Smith.
Two years ago at the Rio Games, Ledecky, the Stanford star, captured the gold in the 400 freestyle, while Smith finished third.
“I think I’ve gotten to be next to her for some of the most incredible swims and I think I have really good races when I swim next to Katie,” Smith said.
But there was one race on Sunday that was happening in two different pools on two different continents: the duel between American Lilly King and Russian Yulia Efimova. Before it was time for King to swim the 50 breaststroke, Efimova posted a time of 29.93 as part of the Mare Nostrum Swim Tour in Canet, France.
Hours later, King responded by beating her rival by three-tenths of a second with a time of 29.62.
“I think I needed a year off from that stress,” King said of not racing Efimova this year. “We’re kind of doing a virtual battle. We’re going back and forth without really seeing each other until next summer.”
Other notable results Sunday included Cal’s Farida Osman in the women’s 50 butterfly knockout. Osman made it to the final round, losing to Canadian Olympian Penny Oleksiak with a time of 26.32.
In the men’s 50 backstroke knockout, Markus Thormeyer and Ryosuke Irie tied in the final with a time of 25.68.
Zane Grothe and distance-king Park Tae Hwan also got their rematch in the 400 freestyle after Grothe upset the South Korean in the 800 freestyle Saturday evening. Tae Hwan, however, fared no better in the 400, placing seventh out of nine. Grothe won the race in 3:50.53.
Sunday was also a day of scratches for some notable names. Olympic champ Ryan Murphy of Cal scratched from the men’s 50 backstroke after swimming the fastest time in the preliminaries. Murphy’s teammate, Nathan Adrian, also found himself with the fastest time in the 50 free preliminaries, but decided not to swim in the evening finals. Adrian won bronze in the race in Rio.
Four-time Olympian Ryan Lotche scratched from two events — the 50 free and 50 butterfly — so he could return home to Florida to be with his son. His teammate, Caeleb Dressel, scratched from the 50 butterfly after posting the fastest time in the prelims.