FUKUOKA – Australia’s Ariarne Titmus blew 400m freestyle rivals Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh out of the water and reclaimed her world record at swimming’s world championships in Japan on Sunday.

Titmus came home in 3min 55.38sec to win the title and recoup the mark that McIntosh had wrested from her in March. Ledecky finished second in 3:58.73 but McIntosh could only place fourth, with New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather taking third in 3:59.59.

Titmus said she “honestly did not think about getting the world record back”.

“I just wanted to come here and swim the way that I felt I was capable of,” she said. “It was obviously enough to get the record back.”

The race was one of the most hotly anticipated events of the world championships on the opening night in Fukuoka.

It pitted Tokyo Games champion Titmus against Canadian world record-holder McIntosh and American defending world champion Ledecky.

It was also the first time that the three had gone head-to-head since the Olympics two years ago.

“I was really excited for this race coming in tonight,” Titmus said. “Me and Katie and Summer always put up a great fight and I’m glad that we could put on a show.”

The 22-year-old led from start to finish and looked comfortable in breaking McIntosh’s previous benchmark of 3:56.08.

“Women’s sport is really getting hyped up,” added Titmus, who also won the world title ahead of Ledecky in South Korea in 2019. “I just feel really blessed to be a part of it.”

She had added a little spice to the build-up by questioning McIntosh’s ability to handle the pressure of the big occasion.

Ledecky was aiming to add to her 19 world titles, already a record for a woman, having finished fastest in the morning heats ahead of Titmus and McIntosh.

“I can’t really complain,” Ledecky said. “I thought Ariarne and Summer would be fast so I just wanted to kind of stay in contact.”

She added: “You could just see the world record coming. Once a couple people do something, more people start doing it.”

“It’s been a very fast year of swimming and it was kind of predictable that it would be a really fast field.”

Singapore’s Gan Ching Hwee was 24th among 41 swimmers in the heats in 4:13.10.

Earlier, Australia’s Sam Short won the men’s 400m freestyle race a year after his compatriot Elijah Winnington prevailed.

The 19-year-old crossed the line in 3:40.68 seconds to edge out Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia by 0.02 of a second, while Germany’s Lukas Martens was 1.52 seconds behind the winner to take the bronze medal.

Winnington, who bagged the title in Budapest in 2022, was seventh out of eight competitors.

Singapore’s Glen Lim was 31st out of 55 swimmers in the heats in 3:54.42.

Later, France’s Leon Marchand smashed American legend Michael Phelps’ last world record, winning the men’s 400m individual medley.

He clocked 4:02.50 – more than a second faster – to finish ahead of American Carson Foster in 4:06.56 and Japan’s Daiya Seto in 4:09.41.

Marchand is set to be one of the faces of the Paris Olympics and he warned that “the best is yet to come”.

“It was insane,” the 21-year-old said. “That was one of the most painful things I did. That was amazing to do it here. The time is crazy.”

Phelps’ 4:03.84 had stood since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was the longest-held world record in swimming.

Second-placed Foster said it was “pretty cool” to watch Marchand break it.

“Obviously, the goal is always to win and Leon is a great competitor,” he said. “Being the closest person to history was pretty cool, getting a front-row seat to that.”

Marchand, who is coached by Phelps’ ex-mentor Bob Bowman, also won the 400m IM in Budapest in 2022 after clocking 4:04.28.

The Frenchman insisted on Saturday that breaking the record was just “a step in my journey”.

Meanwhile, Australia won both the women’s and men’s 4x100m freestyle relays, with the women setting a world record, coming home in 3:27.96 to take gold ahead of the United States (3:31.93) and China (3:32.40).

The men clocked 3:10.16 to beat Italy (3:10.49) and the US (3:10.81).

The British quartet, pre-meet favourites for the crown, were disqualified due to an early take-off by Jacob Whittle in their heat in the morning.

Singapore, represented by Quah Zheng Wen, Jonathan Tan, Mikkel Lee and Lim, were 18th out of 21 teams in 3:17.89 in the heats.

REUTERS, AFP