With a strong 200m freestyle victory at the US trials on Wednesday, Katie Ledecky stamped her ticket to a second individual event at the 2022 World Championships.

Ledecky, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 200m freestyle, swam 1min 55.15sec to win by nearly two seconds over 15-year-old Claire Weinstein (1:57.08).

Ledecky’s time placed her second in the world this year, behind Australian Ariarne Titmus, who will not race in the World Championships in Budapest from June 18 to July 3.

As in her impressive 800m free victory on Tuesday, Ledecky swam faster than she did in the Tokyo Olympic final last year.

Kieran Smith, who won 400m free bronze in Tokyo last year, won the men’s 200m free in 1:45.25, just one of the 2022 world-leading times produced on Wednesday on the second day of the trials in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Drew Kibler was second in 1:45.32, second-fastest in the world this year, coming up just short in his late challenge to Smith.

Ryan Murphy won the men’s 200m backstroke in a world-leading 1:55.01, surging over the final 100m to overtake Shaine Casas, who finished second in 1:55.46.

Lilly King went out fast and held on to win the women’s 200m breaststroke in a world-leading 2:21.19, with collegiate star Kate Douglass finishing second in 2:21.43, booking her berth in Budapest in the second-quickest time this year.

Caeleb Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, won the men’s 50m butterfly in 22.84 seconds, a US Open record that is second fastest in the world this year behind Nicholas Santos’s 22.73.