Virus-hit Titmus back and ready to win golds

SYDNEY • Australia's double Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus is looking forward to seeing how fast she can go in the Birmingham pool at the July 28-Aug 8 Commonwealth Games after making a full recovery from Covid-19.

The 21-year-old set a world record of 3min 56.40sec in the 400m freestyle at the Australian trials in Adelaide in May before contracting the coronavirus last month. "I had such a good lead-up to trials, everything kind of fell into place and I think I swam probably one of the best 400s I have swam," she said yesterday from Australia's training base in France.

"I think getting Covid kind of put a spanner in the works but I think everyone's kind of gone through that, so I was just trying to get back to feeling myself. I feel like that now and I'm really excited to race at the Comm Games."

Titmus' stunning 200m and 400m free double at the Tokyo Olympics last year ensures she will be one of the biggest names competing in Birmingham.

She will defend the 400m and 800m free titles she won on the Gold Coast in 2018 as well as look to improve on the silver she won in the 200m four years ago.

"I've made some shifts and I think I've improved in some areas since trials," she added. "I'm looking forward to seeing how fast I can go at the Games."

Titmus could become just the second woman to retain her 400m and 800m Games double, after fellow Australian Tracey Wickham did so in 1982.

Her sternest competition appears to be in the 400m free against Canadian teen star Summer McIntosh, who finished runner-up at last month's World Aquatics Championships in Budapest behind American great and seven-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

The 15-year-old is just the fourth woman in history to record a time of under four minutes in the event after world-record holder Titmus, Ledecky and Italy's Federica Pellegrini.

REUTERS