Ariarne Titmus has reclaimed her throne as the queen of the 400m freestyle, shattering a world record to beat rivals Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh at the World Aquatics Championships.
The meeting between Titmus, Ledecky and McIntosh, who had broken Titmus’ old 400m world record earlier this year, was one of the most anticipated races in years, but the Aussie proved herself to be a class above her rivals.
Titmus swam an incredible 3:55.38 in Fukuoka, smashing McIntosh’s previous record, while Ledecky finished second in 3:58.73 with bronze for Erika Fairweather of New Zealand in 3:59.59. McIntosh was fourth in 3:59.94.
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Following the race, Titmus declared the win the “most satisfying” of her career.
“I was just really excited for this race,” she told Nine.
“I’ve put in a lot of work in the past six weeks that I’ve been happy with. I took a lot away from the trials. I didn’t swim the way I wanted to, but I knew I had a lot of time to try and turn it around.
“I just came in tonight and tried to race like I was fearless and race like I’m that little girl again and it paid off.”
Titmus admitted she wanted to put pressure on both Ledecky and McIntosh right from the starting gun.
”Summer and Katie are both class acts and there’s hardly any faults in their racing so I knew the only way to try and take the win was to take it out and whoever had the most fight in the end and whoever had the best left in the tank was the one that was going to grab the wall,” she said.
“I just had to really go for it.”
Titmus’ coach Dean Boxall was full of emotion after her win, emulating his famous celebration from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s be a tough year for us and I feel like it’s all come together at the perfect moment,” Titmus said.
“He (Boxall) has really helped me through this year and, yeah, it just means a lot. I feel like this victory is probably my most satisfying. So this is great.”
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