Swimming: Ariarne Titmus is still the hunter

One win over US superstar Katie Ledecky does not make Ariarne Titmus the hunted when it comes to this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Ariarne Titmus knows she will have to break a world record to beat Katie Ledecky Picture: Lachie Millard

One swallow does not make a summer. One win over US superstar Katie Ledecky does not make Ariarne Titmus the hunted when it comes to this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

True, it was not just any old win. It came at the world swimming championships in Gwangju, South Korea last July and in a fashion that stunned the swimming community. There was Ledecky, holder of an all-time high 14 world and Olympic titles, leading the 400m freestyle final into the last lap, predictably so, when suddenly and completely in disregard of expectations, there was Titmus sprinting straight past her to claim the gold.

It was the first time the female equivalent of Michael Phelps had been beaten in an international 400m freestyle race and immediately the experts all started asking questions. Was Ledecky ill? Her time, 3.59.97sec, was respectable for just about any other swimmer but it was more than 3.5sec outside her own world record.

So while Titmus had won in a career-best 3.58.76, it didn’t prompt any stories that the queen was dead, long live the queen. In fact, most people received all the information they needed when Ledecky withdrew the next day from the prelims of the 200m freestyle, citing illness.

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So in the world’s mind, in Ledecky’s view and in Titmus’s brutal self-evaluation nothing really significant happened in Gwangju. Ledecky remains the overwhelming favourite for the Olympic gold in July, with Titmus still on her heels.

“I still feel internationally I’m still hunting Katie,” said Titmus on Wednesday. “Her world record is still two seconds faster than my pb and 100 per cent I believe that she is going to be in that form or better. For me to be able to beat her at the Olympics, I’m going to have to be definitely a lot better than I was last year and I’m working towards doing that. But I still have a few boxes to tick.”

So, would a 3.56 swim win the gold in Tokyo, she was asked? “I feel faster. I feel the world record will be broken to win the 400m freestyle. That is the expectation that I have to have. She is going to be swimming faster than what she was four years ago, so I believe the world record is what it is going to take to win the 400m freestyle.”

It’s reasonably rare that a world record is produced in the pool at an Olympics. But Ledecky has twice proven that wrong, within a few days of each other at the 2016 Rio Olympics when she twice set world records in winning the 400m and 800m freestyle.

Only Ledecky would know if the hard-as-nails Tasmanian got inside her head in Gwangju, though Titmus would have some idea as well. If she did, she has no intention of broadcasting that fact to the American, let alone to the world.

“I think she definitely had a race plan going into the event to try and beat me and I could see that. If she had executed her last 100m the way she had intended, 100 per cent she would have beaten me. So if she does that she could have the race in the bag. But I didn’t feel she changed her tactics because of where I was. I think she had already had that planned. She might have guessed what I would do, which was to go out hard, but I’m not going to change my race tactics either dependent on what she is going to do. Dean (Boxall) and I have a very strict plan going into the race that I’m going to stick to.”

What is unsaid in all of that is why Ledecky did not execute her final 100m in the way she had planned and whether, once bitten, she will be doubly shy of Titmus in Tokyo. Oh yes, Titmus is most definitely the hunter.