Ariarne Titmus looking forward to 400m world c’ship battle with Summer McIntosh, Katie Ledecky
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Australia's Ariarne Titmus is all smiles after winning the women's 400m final at the Australian championships on the Gold Coast on April 19, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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GOLD COAST – Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus, whose 400m freestyle world record was eclipsed by Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh a month ago, said she had naively thought her timing will “stand for a while”.
Titmus, 22, cruised to the 400m freestyle title at the Australian championships on the Gold Coast in 4min 00.49sec on Wednesday, in contrast to McIntosh’s 3:56.08 effort in March in Toronto, where the 16-year-old shaved 0.32sec off Titmus’ world mark set in 2022.
“Initially it sucks,” Titmus, the women’s 200m and 400m freestyle champion at the Tokyo Olympics, told Australian media about her thoughts on McIntosh breaking her mark. “You break a world record and you’re kind of naive in thinking it’s going to stand for a while.
“But world records are there to be broken. It means that the world of swimming is moving forward – and I think it just makes it more exciting for our event.”
Titmus had played down expectations before Wednesday’s race, revealing she was unwell leading up to the event.
She added after the race that her main focus would be Australia’s world championship trials in June, ahead of the main event in Japan a month later.
“We want to race fast at trials and at worlds and here is more about a stepping stone and having good race practice,” said Titmus, whose 3:56.40 effort at the 2022 Australian championships had bettered American Katie Ledecky’s six-year-old world mark of 3:56.46 set at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
McIntosh’s emergence as a serious contender sets the scene for a blockbuster 400m clash with Titmus and Ledecky at the worlds in Fukuoka.
“I would love to be a fan of swimming right now,” Titmus added. “I don’t think that there’s ever been a race where there are three women swimming so fast at the same time. And I think that’s very cool to watch.”
In other events, the versatile Kaylee McKeown stunned a strong field to win the women’s 200m breaststroke title in 2:24.18 – an event she doesn’t usually swim outside of the medley.
The Olympic 100m and 200m backstroke champion, whose retired sister Taylor was a breaststroke specialist, touched well clear of the more accomplished Abbey Harkin and Jenna Strauch.
“One McKeown is out so guess I have to fill in for Taylor,” said McKeown, who also won the 100m backstroke and finished eighth in the 100m freestyle this week.
“This is a really fun event for me and having no nerves I just gave it a red-hot crack.”
Mollie O’Callaghan, the 100m freestyle world champion, powered home in the 50m backstroke in 27.42. McKeown holds the year’s fastest 50m back time of 27.31 but did not enter the event.
Cameron McEvoy won the men’s 50m freestyle in 22.11, while Thomas Neill swam sub-two minutes to take out the 200m medley and Matt Temple touched first in the 100m butterfly in 51.49. AFP
