Ariane Titmus swimming underdog after surrendering 400 metres world record
Ariarne Titmus has queried teen rival Summer McIntosh’s big-stage credentials as she begrudgingly embraces the underdog tag for their swimming world championships showdown.
Key points:
- Ariarne Titmus lost her 400m freestyle world record to Summer McIntosh in March
- Canadian McIntosh broke the record by 0.32 seconds
- Titmus is reigning Olympic champion, while McIntosh finished fourth in Tokyo as a 14-year-old
The Olympic champion whipped through Tuesday night’s 400m freestyle final in 3:58.47 in the Australian trials at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre ahead of next month’s meet in Japan.
The 22-year-old lost her world record to 16-year-old McIntosh in March and will face the Canadian, along with American superstar Katie Ledecky, in Fukuoka.
“On paper I’d say I’m still Olympic champ going in,” Titmus told reporters.
“I feel like Katie, Summer and I are quite even going in, to be honest.
“I mean, I like going in with the underdog narrative. I like when you can kind of pounce, I guess.
“But I feel like with the experience that Katie has had, and with what I have had, I feel like we have had more experience than Summer racing with the pressure.
“I feel like Summer hasn’t really had that experience yet, racing on the international stage with the big pressure, so it’ll be interesting to see how she goes.
“But props to her if she goes in as the favourite.”
Titmus set a world record of 3:56.40 on May 22 last year at the nationals in Adelaide.
She skipped last year’s world championships to focus on the Commonwealth Games, where she saw off McIntosh.
But McIntosh claimed the world mark by clocking 3:56.08 at Canada’s world championships trials in March.
Titmus, who said she could consider her future after the Paris Olympics, admitted losing the record provided added motivation ahead of the world championships.
“World records are obviously there to be broken. But when you do break one, you kind of naively think that they might last forever,” Titmus said.
“So when it did get broken, it was a bit of like a bee sting like, ‘oh, OK the world of swimming is moving’.
“So it does kind of add that little bit of extra motivation, because everyone’s always getting faster.
“I mean, I believe next year at the Olympics, there could be four women under four minutes when you look at the Chinese girl Li Bingjie as well. So the depth is crazy and it always keeps you on your toes.”
Lani Pallister finished second on Tuesday night in 4:02.43 and also qualifies for the Australian team.
The hotly anticipated men’s 400m freestyle proved a thriller.
Young gun Sam Short 3:43.38 just held off reigning world champion Elijah Winnington (3:43.48) to touch the wall first, in potentially a preview of the final in Fukuoka.
Veteran and local hope Mack Horton (3:46.71) came third.
Earlier, Kaylee McKeown claimed the 200m individual medley to seal her ticket to the world championships but fell short of breaking Stephanie Rice’s long-standing Australian record of 2:07.03.
McKeown, who didn’t taper, notched 2:07.60 while second-placed Jenna Forrester (2:09.29) also qualified.
Emma McKeon won the 100m butterfly in 56.74 while Brianna Throssell (57.66) also sealed her spot on the team.
Zac Stubblety-Cook won the 100m breaststroke in 59.68.
The 200m breaststroke specialist will make the team for Japan after breaking the FINA time of 59.75 but second-placed Sam Williamson (59.82) fell short.
AAP
