PHOENIX: Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder Katie Ledecky dominated the women's 1500m freestyle Wednesday on the opening night of the Pro Swim Series meeting at Mesa, Arizona.
Ledecky clocked 15 minutes, 42.23 seconds, the fifth-fastest time in history. Including her world record of 15:28.36, the 18-year-old owns four of the top five times ever in the event.
"I think it was really good for me to swim it just because I haven't raced in two months," said Ledecky, who finished almost a full 50 meters in front of runner-up Kristel Kobrich of Chile, who clocked 16:26.95.
"I sort of shook the cobwebs off and got a jump on the meet tonight, and I'll be ready to go the rest of the week," added Ledecky, whose 2015 season will be highlighted by the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
Ledecky is entered in every freestyle race from the 100m through 1,500m as well as the 400m individual medley in this week's meet in suburban Phoenix.
She could opt out of some events but the swimmer who owns the world records in the three longest freestyle events -- the 400m, 800m and 1500m -- said Wednesday morning she expects to swim at least the heats of the 100m free -- even if it remains, for now, a lower priority than the longer races.
"I'm not really even thinking about that race," she said. "I'll probably swim it at least in the morning (preliminaries).
"I'm always trying to improve every race. I think the 100 helps my 200 and my 200 helps my 400."
Michael Phelps, the 18-time Olympic gold medalist making his return to competition this week after a six-month ban in the wake of his drunk-driving arrest in September, said watching Ledecky's rise reminded him of his own early career.
"It's been wild to watch her sort of grow up into the swimmer that she is now," Phelps said. "Watching her break the records ... watching her swim last summer it brought back so many memories of when I was her age doing the same thing."
In the only other race on the opening night of the meet, El Salvador's Marcelo Acosta won the men's 8000m freestyle in 8:10.85, edging Nick Norman (8:11.14), with Daniel O'Connor third in 8:12.76.
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