Sawt Falasteen - McIntosh, Marchand grab medley victories in Austin, Ledecky wins again

Canada's McIntosh, winner of three gold medals at the Paris Olympics and four titles at last year's World Championships in Singapore, opened her night by cruising to victory in the 200m individual medley in 2min 08.48sec.

The 19-year-old didn't approach her world record of 2:05.70, but she was 5.25sec faster than runner-up Cyrielle Duhamel of France.

France's Marchand, who followed up his electrifying four-gold performance at the Paris Games with a medley double at last year's World Championships, cruised to victory in the 200m individual medley in 1:57.65, leading all the way in a win over American Carson Foster (1:58.96).

Marchand returned to tackle a less familiar event, clocking 1:57.90 to finish second in the 200m backstroke won by compatriot Yohann Ndoye Brouard in 1:56.68.

McIntosh, now training with Marchand under Michael Phelps mentor Bob Bowman in Austin, also bagged a silver, finishing second in the 100m butterfly won by American Regan Smith in 56.18.

Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic gold medalist still going strong at 28, cruised to a victory in the 400m free in 4:00.54 -- 6.83sec ahead of fellow American Claire Weinstein.

Ledecky's victory -- made a bit easier by world record-holder McIntosh's decision to skip the event this week -- followed her superb win in the 1500m free on Wednesday in the second-fastest time in history.

France's Maxime Grousset won the men's 100m fly in 50.95sec. Caeleb Dressel, who set the world record back in 2021, was second in 51.62 with France's Clement Secchi third in 52.45.

Serbia's Andrej Barna clocked 21.77 to edge Grousset in the 50m free, Grousset taking second in 21.82 and world bronze medalist Jack Alexy of the United States third in 21.92.

B.AbuZeid--SF-PST