Ariarne Titmus has decimated her competition to set a new world record and take the gold medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle at the World Swimming Championships.
Titmus torched arch-rivals Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh — who was the reigning world record holder — to touch the wall at 3:55:38.
Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
It meant the Australian swimming superstar continued her unbeaten run in the 400m freestyle, a race which she has not lost in a staggering five years.
Titmus was out in front after 100 metres and never looked back from that moment.
Her main rival in the early stages of the race was 16-year-old Canadian sensation McIntosh, who was in second and looked to be slowly closing the distance while Ledecky was lurking not too far behind.
But McIntosh quickly ran out of gas at the 300m mark and slowly slipped away as Ledecky crept back into second.
Yet it was Titmus who produced the swim of a lifetime to smash McIntosh’s world record and leave the rest of her rivals in her wake.
One Channel Nine commentator remarked: “This is a demolition job.”
Ledecky ultimately took the silver medal with a time of 3:58:73 while Kiwi star Erika Fairweather secured a bronze medal after touching the wall at 3:59:59.
As for McIntosh, she missed out on a podium finish altogether after placing fourth.
Titmus’ coach Dean Boxall, who went viral for his hilarious celebration at his star’s victory at the Tokyo Olympics, recreated his crazy scenes in Fukuoka.
In an earlier race, Sam Short won Australia’s first gold medal at the World Swimming Championships in the Men’s 400m Freestyle.
Short beat Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui in the final 15 metres to secure first place.
The 19-year-old was on pace to break the world record at the 300m mark but came home in 3 minutes, 40.68 seconds, missing the mark by 0.61 sec.
“With 100 to go, I was just going for the win because Ahmed is the Olympic champion so this was going to go down to the wire,” Short said.
“I just put my head down at the end and I don’t know how I beat his long arms to the wall but I did it.”
Hafnaoui finished second on 3:40.70, while Germany’s Lukas Martens was third on 3:42.20.
Discussion about this post