World Swimming Championships: Ariarne Titmus looks to add the 200m freestyle to her collection
Ariarne Titmus loves the battle, and the 400m freestyle champion is set for another showdown with the elite of the elite on Wednesday night, as she looks to make more history in the pool.
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Strap yourselves in Australia - the Terminator is getting ready to rumble again.
Ariarne Titmus sure loves a fight and she’s got herself another heavyweight bout lined up at the world championships in Japan on Wednesday night.
Titmus is always box office gold but it helps when she has some willing sparring partners and she’s got two of the very best teenagers in the sport squaring up.
That won’t faze Titmus because she loves the big occasions.
She’s shown that plenty of times before, including on Sunday when she demolished the world record to regain her 400m freestyle crown against American superstar Katie Ledecky and rising Canadian talent Summer McIntosh.
Her next challenge in Fukuoka is to win a second gold in 200m freestyle and she has a real shot at the title - and possibly the oldest world record in women’s swimming.
Showing no sign of slowing down after her epic 400m race, Titmus has qualified fastest for the final after winning her semi in 1:54.64.
And in the lanes next to her for the blockbuster clash are her two teenage rivals - McIntosh and Mollie O’Callaghan.
“I just had to do the job, get through, try to get the middle lane … I did what I had to do. I’m happy with it so looking forward,” Titmus said.
“I just think it’s a nicer feeling being in the middle when you’re racing, you can see what is going on more.
“I just had to try and practice a few things that I want to do and try and conserve as much as I could, get the job done as easy as possible and I feel like I did that.”
McIntosh - who had previously held the 400m world record Titmus broke earlier in the week - looks like she had recovered from that disappointment as she cruised to victory in her semi-final in 1:54.67 - just 0.03 behind Titmus’ time.
“I’m happy. Semi-finals are probably the most stressful part of any swimmer’s meet because 50 per cent of people don’t make it back,” McIntosh said.
“You always have to stay on your toes to make sure that you’re pushing just enough but not overdoing it so you’re not too tired for the final.”
O’Callaghan was a heartbeat away in third overall, with a time of 1:54.91, but was also taking it easy. She has the fastest times in the world this year for both the 100m and 200m and like her training partner Titmus, she also has the heart of a lion.
Apart from trying to win the gold medal, all three women will have their sights on breaking the 200m world record of 1:52.98, set by Italian Federica Pellegrini in 2009 in a now banned supersuit.
The oldest world record left on the books, whoever breaks it will have to combine lightning speed with gut-busting stamina but O’Callaghan said her coach Dean Boxall had prepared her and Titmus for the ultimate challenge.
“I think everything is in reach, if you put your mind to it,” O’Callaghan said.
“Dean’s obviously training Arnie and myself and every 200m girl in that squad to get that world record.
“And that’s something I really want to work to. I think it’s just going to take one step at a time fixing new things. But fingers crossed. “Hopefully in the future I can get close to it.
“That’s what I’m hoping. I really want it. I think all of the girls want to. The world record is such a big thing and it’s such a big accomplishment but it’s not easy.”
MCKEOWN ADDS TO INCREDIBLE ARRAY OF TITLES AT FUKUOKA
Australian swimming superstar Kaylee McKeown has won the last major title that was missing from her incredible record collection with another stunning performance at the world championships in Japan.
Still just 22, McKeown unleashed a devastating last lap to win the women’s 100m backstroke gold medal in Fukuoka, a fingernail ahead of her great American rival Regan Smith.
McKeown had already won the 200m backstroke world title last year but skipped the shorter race to have a serious crack at the 200m individual medley,
She entered all three events this time but was robbed of the chance to show what she can do the medley when she was disqualified for a technical infraction in the semis.
Unfazed, she came out and won an elusive gold in the 100m backstroke, touching in 57.53 seconds, just 0.08 outside the world record she set at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic trials in Adelaide.
“I just really wanted to get out there, I was very, very nervous heading in, probably more so than I have ever been,” McKeown said.
“It was just to real testament myself dealing with what I have over the past few hours.
“I am really happy to have the Americans chasing me because I don’t think without them I would have swum as fast as I did, it was great having them by my side.
“Nerves just mean that you care about what you’re doing, just when you train so hard for something you just want it to all come together at the right moment and I just wanted to prove to myself that I am still swimming fast.”
McKeown had already won the 100m and 200m backstroke golds at all the other major meets: the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world short-course championships.
She also holds the long-course and short-course world records for 200m backstroke, which she will race in Japan later this week.
“I never go into a meet thinking about medals or the opportunity that comes from the medal,” she said.
“For me I just go through all the processes and ticking the box, heats to the semis to the final, and putting my best foot forward and that medal that comes along is just a great opportunity.”
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