TOKYO (Reuters) – Hours after losing the 400m freestyle to Australia’s Ariarne Timus, five-times Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky was back in the pool and posted the quickest time in qualifying for the 200m freestyle.
Ledecky swam a time of 1:55.28 while Titmus, fresh off her gold success, was fourth fastest with 1:55.88. Canada’s Penny Oleksiak was second quickest and Australian Madison Wilson third.
World record holder Federico Pellegrini of Italy only scraped into the semi-finals with the 15th fastest time.
In the men’s 200m butterfly heats, world record holder Kristof Milak of Hungary was comfortably the fastest with his time of 1:53.58, 0.86 seconds ahead of the second quickest swimmer Wang Kuan-Hung.
Chad Le Clos of South Africa, gold medal winner in London and silver medallist in Rio, scraped into the semi-finals in the 16th and last spot.
“I want to do a similar time in the semi-finals and save the best for the final,” Milak said. “It was a good feeling to look around see the other guys and say, ok, let’s start this.”
In the women’s 200m medley, Kate Douglass of the United States was fastest, 0.54 seconds ahead of world record holder and defending Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu.
(Reporting by Simon Evans, editing by Ed Osmond)
