FUKUOKA – Australian Ariarne Titmus had only one tactic in mind to reclaim her women's 400-meter freestyle world record on Sunday's opening day of the World Aquatics Championships.
Start fast and hang on.
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It worked. Titmus won in 3 minutes, 55.38 seconds with silver for American Katie Ledecky in 3:58.73 and bronze for Erika Fairweather of New Zealand in 3:59.59.
Canadian 16-year-old Summer McIntosh, who held the record after taking it four months ago from Titmus, was fourth in 3:59.94. Her old mark was 3:56.08.
“It wasn’t something (breaking the record) that I had my mind on for this meet,” Titmus said. "I just wanted to come here and try and swim the way I know I’m capable of. I knew the only way to win — I believed — was to try to take it out (fast) and whoever had as much fight left at the end was going to win it.”
Despite it falling on the first day, the race was seen by many as the most compelling matchup of the eight-day championships in southwestern Japan with 22-year-old Titmus and 26-year-old Ledecky both having held the world record before McIntosh.
Ledecky, one of the greatest freestylers in history, sounded content with her race and now looks to the 800 and 1,500 where she is almost unbeatable. She said the record seemed inevitable.
“I think you could see a world record coming,” she said. “Once a couple of people do something more people start doing it. It’s been a very fast year of swimming and it was predictable that it will be a really fast field.”
Ledecky has almost never gone home from a race in the world championships or Olympics with less than a gold or silver medal. She finished fifth in the 200 meters at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, her only other sub-gold or silver performance.
She entered these worlds with 32 gold or silver medals in the Olympics and worlds.
The race by the three superstar women overshadowed the world-record performance of rising French star Leon Marchand. Marchand won the 400 IM in 4:02.50 breaking the previous mark of 4:03.84 set by American Michael Phelps in 2008. The 400 IM record was the last individual mark held by Phelps.
“That was insane,” Marchand said after the race, obliterating Phelps' record by more than a second. “That was one of the most painful things. That was just amazing to do it here. I mean, the time is crazy.”
Marchand then added: “The best is yet to come.”
Phelps, in Japan to comment for television, presented the gold medal to Marchand. He said Phelps offered a tip, which was to finish his freestyle leg faster.
“He (Phelps) was very impressed by the time,” Marchand said. “He was commenting the race. It was pretty cool to see that.”
Marchand is coached at Arizona State University by Bob Bowman, who is also the head coach of the American team at the worlds and also coached Phelps.
Marchand said he's prepared for the pressure of next year's Paris Olympics where he is sure to be the face of the French Games.
“I think I can handle the pressure pretty well right now,” Marchand said. “It's not perfect and I can get better and I have one year to improve.”
Unlike the 400, Marchand’s race was never in doubt. He assumed the lead 40 meters in and steamed home the rest of the way.
American Carson Foster (4:06.56) picked up the silver, while Daiya Seto of Japan (4:09.41) collected the bronze.
In other medal races on the first day in Japan, Sam Short of Australia won the men’s 400 in 3:40.68 with silver for Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia (3:40.70) and bronze for Lukas Martens of Germany (3:42.20).
In the 4x100 men’s freestyle relay, Australia took the gold in 3:10.16, with Italy earning the silver (3:10.49) and the United States the bronze (3:10.81).
In the 4x100 women’s freestyle relay, Australia set a world record of 3:27.96 in a dominating win. The United States took second in 3:31.93, while China rounded out the podium with 3:32.40.
The top three finishers in each relay automatically qualified for next summer’s Paris Olympics.
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