Ledecky dominates in 200m victory

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.