Sjostrom stars in International Swimming League opener

LOS ANGELES, California: Sarah Sjostrom starred Sunday, taking her tally of individual wins in the first International Swimming League meeting to five as she led the Paris-based Energy Standard team to victory.

Sweden’s Sjostrom, the 100m butterfly gold medallist at the Rio Olympics and an eight-time world champion, won the 100m free, 50m fly and the rollicking “skins race” Sunday to become the first swimmer to be named Most Valuable Player of an ISL event.

The fledgling league, brainchild of Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, is stepping out from under the umbrella of international governing body FINA, offering signficant prize money in a team-based, sprint-centric format that it hopes will prove a big draw for swim fans and top athletes alike.

This weekend’s meet in the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana, was the first of six meetings scheduled for the league’s inaugural season. Each features four of the league’s eight teams, and the top four in the overall standings will compete in a series finale in Las Vegas in December.

“It was so much fun,” said Sjostrom, who also won the 100m fly and the 50m free on Saturday. She capped her weekend with the victory in the skins race — three quick-fire elimination heats of 50m freestyle which ends with two racers going head to head.

She beat Energy Star teammate Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands in the final round, the exhausted pair laughing and gasping as they left the deck arm in arm to be congratulated by their teammates. “The skins was a big challenge,” Sjostrom said. “It takes it out of you, but it was very exciting.”

France’s Florent Manaudou, the 2012 Olympic 50m freestyle gold medallist who ended a near three-year retirement in June, also had another big day for Energy Star. After clocking a season-leading shortcourse time of 20.77sec in the 50m free on Saturday, he won the 50m butterfly in a season’s best 22.66 then won the men’s skins race ahead of teammate Ben Proud. Energy Standard topped the points standings with 521.

Cali Condors — with strong performances from Australian Mitch Larkin and American Melanie Margalis in the 200m individual medleys — finished second in the standings on 425 points. DC Trident, the team based in the US capital, finished third in the points with an effort spearheaded by US freestyle star Katie Ledecky’s sizzling victory in the 400m free.

Ledecky clocked 3min 54.06 sec to edge Cali Condors’ Ariarne Titmus — the Aussie who stunned Ledecky for the 400m free world gold this year. Ledecky’s time was just 14-hundredths of a second outside the shortcourse world record of 3:53.92 set by Titmus in 2018.