Ariarne ‘Arnie’ Titmus terminates opposition at national titles

They call her Arnie and schoolgirl Ariarne Titmus has terminated all opposition this week in the 400m and 800m freestyle.

Ariarne Titmus after winning the 800m freestyle on the first day of the trials.

At first glance, Australia’s next ­distance star, 16-year-old Ariarne Titmus, does not bear much ­resemblance to action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But her swimming squad knows her as Arnie and her father Steve, a journalist who knows a good nickname when he sees one, has taken to calling her “The ­Terminator’’.

And like her namesake, the Brisbane schoolgirl has terminated all opposition this week in the 400m and 800m freestyle at the national trials in Brisbane.

Titmus was the great revelation of the competition, putting in a ­series of stunning performances at her first senior selection meet. She also qualified for the 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay and will swim as many as four events at the world titles in Budapest in July.

She is now the fastest 16-year-old girl that Australia has ever had in the 400m and 800m freestyle, which says everything about her potential, given Australia’s history in these events features the likes of Shane Gould, Tracey Wickham, Michelle Ford, Julie McDonald and Hayley Lewis, a collection of Olympic medallists, world champions and world record-breakers.

National head coach Jacco Verhaeren said Titmus had “an ­exciting future’’.

Titmus has already established herself as a fearless racer, going to the front from the start of both the 400m and 800m this week and then swimming away from the ­opposition, which in the 800m included one of the world’s top five competitors, Jess Ashwood.

She set a 14-second personal best of 8min 23.03sec in the 800m at the start of the week, improving her 400m personal best to 4:08.95 at the halfway mark, and then ­returned at the end of the week to carve another four seconds off her 400m best (4:04.82).

She seems as poised out of the pool as she does in it. “I know I have trained well and if I put my race together well I would do well,’’ Titmus said after completing her ­program on Thursday night.

The Titmus family is from Tasmania but Ariarne’s parents, Steve and Robyn, decided to relocate them to Brisbane two years ago, following her coach Peter Gartrell so she could pursue her swimming career in a more conducive environment. Gartrell moved on again a year ago and Titmus then joined coach Dean Boxall at St Peters College, where she is in Year 12.

Titmus said Boxall had taught her to back herself no matter who she was racing. “Dean has really taught me not to be scared,’’ she said. “I used to be a bit afraid if I went out hard, thinking ‘Oh no, I’m going too fast, I’m in front of Jess Ashwood’. But now I know I’m in this race as well and I can do my own thing and go out hard and I think that has taught me how to swim fast over the longer distances. I race better if I’m out in front and the other girls have to try and catch me.

“I’m really, really happy with how I’ve raced. A lot of hard training and my coach being on my back all the time has gone into this.

“We have a little bit of a special relationship. If he’s on my back all the time, that’s what helps me get better. I like it when he’s pushing me, pushing me, because it means I can never relax.

“Without him these results would have been impossible this week. He’s a bit of a supercoach.”

Boxall, who runs the best age-group squad in the country under head coach Michael Bohl, has had an outstanding week in Brisbane, putting three swimmers on their first national team.

Freestyle sprinter Jack Cartwright (18) and world junior champion medley swimmer Clyde Lewis (19) will also make their world championships debuts in Budapest.

Boxall said Titmus was “a great girl in all departments’’.

“She’s a student of the sport and she wants to learn. She’s committed. She completely understands the relationship between hard work and success.’’

He’s also excited by the potential of Cartwright and Lewis.

He revealed that Cartwright, who is still a stripling, weighing just 76kg, finished third in the 100m freestyle and fourth in the 200m freestyle this week while suffering from bronchitis.