Titmus eases into 400m freestyle showdown at worlds

Steve Larkin | July 23, 2023

Ariarne Titmus has cruised into her date with World Championship destiny, with the Australian second-fastest into the 400 metres freestyle final in Japan.

American great Katie Ledecky will be flanked by Titmus and Canada’s 16-year-old world record holder Summer McIntosh in Sunday night’s highly anticipated final in Fukuoka.

Ledecky took lane four for the showdown of the three fastest-ever swimmers in the event – all have held the world record in the past 18 months.

Ledecky, the reigning world champion, clocked four minutes 00.80 seconds in the opening pool session of the titles.

Olympic champion Titmus, swimming in the heat prior, finished in 4:01.39 while McIntosh (4:01.72) touched behind Ledecky while Australian Lani Pallister (4:03.49) was sixth-quickest.

Australia’s women’s and men’s 4×100 freestyle relay teams advanced into their Sunday night finals despite resting big guns Kyle Chalmers and Emma McKeon and Mollie O’Callaghan.

Australia’s women, the world record holders, sent out Shayna Jack, Brianna Throssell, Meg Harris and Madi Wilson in their heat.

After Jack’s sizzling opening leg of 52.28 seconds – the fastest time over the distance this year – the quartet posted 3:31.52 with the United States next-best.

Their male compatriots Jack Cartwright, Matt Temple, Kai Taylor and Flynn Southam finished a fingernail – 0.01 seconds – behind the pacesetting Americans.

Earlier, Australia’s Sam Short issued an early 400m freestyle challenge to rivals including teammate and reigning world champion Elijah Winnington.

Short was fastest by some margin into Sunday night’s final, posting 3:42.44 – 1.7 seconds quicker than anyone else in the six heats.

Winnington (3:44.63) will defend his title from lane seven.

Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook scraped into the 100m breaststroke semi-finals, posting 1:00.22 to be the 16th-ranked qualifier.

Kaylee McKeown was the second-quickest qualifier for Sunday night’s 200m individual medley semi-finals, clocking 2:09.50, while fellow Australian Jenna Forrester (2:09.79) was sixth.

In the women’s 100m butterfly, Emma McKeon (57.05) was second-fastest behind China’s Yufei Zhang (56.89) into the night semi-finals and Throssell (57.94) was ninth-quickest.

Brendon Smith advanced into Sunday night’s men’s 400m individual medley final as the fifth-fastest qualifier in a time of 4:11.75 but teammate Thomas Neill (4:14.98, ranked 11th) didn’t progress.

Australian pair Cameron McEvoy and Shaun Champion failed to advance into the 50m butterfly semi-finals after ranking 18th and 26th respectively through the heats.