Australian champion Ariarne Titmus has defended her Olympics 400m freestyle title in stunning fashion, putting paid to her biggest global rivals to claim the nation’s first swimming gold of the Paris Games.
The 23-year-old Queenslander started from Lane 5 in what was billed as the “race of the century” and never really gave her rivals a shot as she powered ahead early and maintained her lead. It was Canadian Summer McIntosh, rather than arch rival Katie Ledecky, who applied most pressure during a tense final 100m but Titmus never looked legitimately challenged.
Titmus won in 3:57.49, trailed by McIntosh in 3:48.37 while Ledecky surprisingly faded to be third in 4:00.86.
It came after Elijah Winnington stormed home to take silver behind Lukas Maertens in the men’s 400m freestyle final. Kim Woo-min was third as Aussie Sam Short missed a medal.
Meg Harris, Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon and Shayna Jack will chase gold in the women’s 4x100m freestye relay final while Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Kai Taylor and Flynn Southam have been named for the men’s relay final.
MORE TO COME
SWIMMING DAY 1 FINALS SCHEDULE
4:30am: Women’s 100m Butterfly semi-finals (Emma McKeon, Alexandria Perkins)
4:42am: Men’s 400m Freestyle Final (Elijah Winnington, Sam Short)
4:55am: Women’s 400m Freestyle Final (Ariarne Titmus, Jamie Perkins)
5:15am: Men’s 100m Breaststroke semi-finals (, Josh Yong)
5:37am: Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final (Australia)
5:50am: Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final (Australia)
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Earlier, Titmus was upbeat despite being topped by Ledecky in the heats.
“This is fun. It is always good to get out there and race Katie again. It is always fun to race the best in the world and I am excited to see what I can do tonight,” Titmus told the Nine Network.
“I just wanted to set up the first 100 (and) see how I felt and then (I was) trying to race the rest of the race judging where the field was. It is crazy that the crowd’s so loud for a heat session. I think everyone is excited to be back at the Olympics.”
She said it did not matter that she was starting from Lane 5 instead of 4 in the final.
“I don’t try to look too much into heat swims. She’s got lane four. I’ve got lane five. It doesn’t really matter now. It’s all about who can do it tonight,” she said.
The crowd at the pool in Saint-Denis is massive and Titmus said she hoped to use the atmosphere to her advantage when she races in teh final, which will begin at 4.55am AEST on Sunday morning.
“You have to use everything around you. I think crowds like this get the best out of you. And it’s not often you get to swim in front of a crowd this big,” she said.
“I think this would probably be the biggest crowd I’ve seen at a swim meet. So I’m really excited. You have to use it to your advantage. And I’ve got myself in a good position.”
On a night where Australia’s 4 * 100m freestyle relay teams qualified for the finals in both the men’s and women’s events, with champions Emma McKeon and Kyle Chalmers brilliant in the anchor legs, Titmus will be joined in the final of the 400m women’s freestyle by Jamie Perkins, who swam brilliantly to qualify fifth fastest in the event.
“I’m actually really happy my teammate Jamie sneaked through as well,” she said.
“It is really exciting to have two of us in the final, so it’s just going to be fun. This is what you dream of. This is what you train to do. So I am going to do the best I can.
“It’s about having your mind on, getting your mind ready to go because, really, at an Olympics, there’s so much other stuff going on around you. It’s who can keep it together in the head who gets out and wins it and is (standing) on top of the podium.”
Australians Matt Short and Elijah Winnington are also medal contenders in the men’s 400m freestyle after strong heat swims, with the pair qualifying fourth and fifth respectively for the final.
Prior to the meet beginning, Olympic Medallist James Magnussen said Titmus had the “weight of a nation on her shoulders”.
“The whole swim team will basically get on the back of her results and use that momentum,” Magnussen said on Fox Sports News’ Matty & the Missile in Paris.
“Or if she was, in some unfortunate circumstance, to lose, the whole swim team starts looking at each other going: ‘Did we get out preparations wrong? Did we come over here too early? Did we peak too early? Are we doing the right type of training?’
“There’s so much pressure on Ariarne night one.”
Despite the external expectations, Magnussen predicted Titmus to thrive in the spotlight.
Paris outdoor opening ceremony delivers | 01:03
“I’m backing Titmus to win comfortable and actually break a world record,” he said.
“I’m going to call it now: I’m saying Titmus is our greatest swimmer of all time and after this Olympics we nationally recognise that Titumus supersedes Ian Thorpe as our greatest swimmer in history.”
Australia is also a medal chance in the 4x100m freestyle relay events — the heats get underway at 8.15pm before the men’s and women’s finals at 5.37am and 5.50am respectively.
Elsewhere, Dolphins stars Elijah Winnington and Sam Short will be vying for gold in the men’s 400m freestyle.
The mighty USA have long dominated Olympic swimming, collecting 30 medals, including 11 gold, to top the table at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games, ahead of Australia with nine gold and 20 in total.
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However, Australia stunned the Americans by doubling their gold medal tally at last year’s world championships, setting up a blockbuster showdown over an intense nine days in La Defense Arena.
The deep-seated rivalry dates back to a war of words at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when Gary Hall Jr. claimed the Americans would “smash them like guitars” ahead of the 4x100m freestyle relay final. Australian quartet Michael Klim, Chris Fydler, Ashley Callus and Ian Thorpe celebrated their unforgettable triumph by mimicking playing guitars on the pool deck.
8.50pm – Chalmers reels in Dressel in incredible heat swim
The men’s 4 * 100m relay final shapes as one of the races of the meeting after Australia edged the United States in a brilliant heat performance on Saturday, with China shaping as a potential knockout hope following a strong heat performance.
Sprint king Kyle Chalmers anchored the Australians brilliantly when reeling in American superstar Caeleb Dressel in the heat after conceding him a start to ensure the Aussies will take confidence into the final.
The Australians recorded a time of 3:12.25 to edge the Americans by .36 of a second, but the two powerhouses will be wary of China after its relay team swam 3:11.62 to easily win the opening heat.
8.30pm — Aussie women fire in freestyle shootout
Emma McKeon has put her hand up to swim in the 4 * 100m freestyle relay final tonight after a blistering heat swim saw Australia post by far the quickest time in the morning session in the pool in Paris.
Although McKeon cannot defend her 100m gold medal from Tokyo after missing qualification for the Australian team in the individual event, she anchored a team featuring Olivia Wunsch, Bronte Campbell and Meg Harris brilliantly to clock a time of 3:31.57.
It was almost two seconds quicker than the United States, which swam 3:33.29, and the Australian team should be stronger in the final with Shayna Jack and Mollie O’Callaghan waiting in the wings. The team is chasing their fourth straight gold medal in the event.
“It is always an honour to be a part of this and, I feel like it is extra special having Liv for the first time on a senior team in her first Olympics,” McKeon said.
“The rest of us have done quite a few relays together but having Liv there, it gives me goosebumps, because I can remember starting out as well.”
Wunsch, 18, said it was a thrill to be a part of the star-studded squad.
“It is biggest honour to be out here with the girls who I have looked up to. It is really exciting to make my debut in the Olympics,” she said.
“I think it’s a start of many more races to come over the years but it is a great experience. I guess it is reassuring knowing that I have them beside me and I think I could go with the confidence of trying to put the best race that I could together and have fun, no matter what.”
8.15pm — South Korean at centre of Aussie coaching controversy bombs out
While Sam Short and Elijah Winnington are safely through to the men’s 400m freestyle final, South Korea’s Kim Woo-Min endured a testing swim after unwittingly finding himself at the centre of a storm in Australia this week.
The 22-year-old, who has received coaching in Brisbane from Australian Michael Palfrey, became the focus of a controversy when his coach told South Korean media he hoped Woo-Min beat home the Aussies in the event.
Palfrey was forced to apologise and faces further sanctions after the Olympics for his declarations.
Woo-min, meanwhile, will need to improve to challenge in the final after fading when recording a time of 3:45.52 to finish fourth in a heat featuring Sam Short, who finished second behind Guilherme Costa.
He will start from lane one in the final on Sunday morning, which is scheduled for 4.42am AEST.
8pm — Aussie duo Short and Winnington qualify for the men’s 400m final
Sam Short has allayed any lingering health concerns after illness dashed his hopes in the Australian Championships by producing a strong swim of 3:44.88 to finish second in his heat of the men’s 400m freestyle behind Brazilian Guilherme Costa.
Elijah Winnington also progressed to the final with a swim of 3:44.87 when second behind German Lukas Maertens who recorded the fastest time of 3:44.13 in the heats.
Earlier, Western Australian Joshua Yong qualified for the semifinals of the 100m breaststroke with a swim of 59.75sec in what shapes as an incredibly even field, but there was no joy for 50m World Champion Sam Williamson, who missed the semifinals when swimming 1:00.5.
He finished eighth in the heat in the same heat as Yong, with 15 competitors in all recording a time underneath 1min for the heats.
7.40pm — Ledecky fires warning shot ahead of race of the Games
American legend Katie Ledecky has produced a brilliant heat swim to edge Australian champion Ariarne Titmus in a heat of the women’s 400m freestyle, but the big guns have all qualified for the final early tomorrow Australian time.
The highly-anticipated race will see Ledecky, who qualified in a time of 4:02.19, start from lane 4 in the final, with Titmus (4:02.46) to start next to her in lane 5 after setting the second quickest time in the heats.
Acclaimed Canadian Summer McIntosh finished second behind Kiwi Erika Fairweather in her heat, with the four leading contenders all breaking 4:03 for the heats.
Australian junior champion Jamie Perkins has also qualified for the final, which is scheduled to start at 4.52am on Sunday, after recording the fifth quickest time.
Titmus is the reigning champion in the event, having recorded a time of 3:56.69 when edging Ledecky by less than a second.
7.20pm — McKeon produces encouraging start
Champion swimmer Emma McKeon has started her Paris 2024 campaign in promising fashion when qualifying for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m butterfly with a strong heat swim.
The five-time Olympic gold medallist finished second in her heat behind China’s Yufei Zhang and fifth fastest overall with a swim of 56.79sec, with compatriot Alexandra Perkins also making it through to the semifinals when recording a time of 57.46sec.
But the opening heat swims has ensured the pre-Olympics controversy surrounding the decision by WADA to clear 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in the lead-in to the Tokyo Olympics, with Zhang among those who received no sanction at the time.
A gold medallist in the 200m butterfly, Zhang recorded the fastest time when scoring in 56.50sec.
China’s anti-doping authorities attributed the test results to food contamination from a hotel where the 23 swimmers were staying, but the swimmers were never provisionally suspended at the time and were able to compete in Tokyo.
An independent prosecutor recently cleared WADA of any wrongdoing at the time, with COVID-19 regulations making it difficult for authorities to properly investigate the case.
SWIMMING DAY 1 SCHEDULE
7pm: Women’s 100m Butterfly (Emma McKeon, Alexandria Perkins)
7.12pm: Women’s 400m Freestyle (Ariarne Titmus, Jamie Perkins)
7.30pm: Men’s 100m Breaststroke (Sam Williamson, Josh Yong)
7.45pm: Men’s 400m Freestyle (Elijah Winnington, Sam Short)
8.15pm: Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (Australia)
8.26pm: Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (Australia)
4:30am: Women’s 100m Butterfly semi-finals (Emma McKeon, Alexandria Perkins)
4:42am: Men’s 400m Freestyle Final (Elijah Winnington, Sam Short)
4:55am: Women’s 400m Freestyle Final (Ariarne Titmus, Jamie Perkins)
5:15am: Men’s 100m Breaststroke semi-finals (, Josh Yong)
5:37am: Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final (Australia)
5:50am: Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final (Australia)
LIVE BLOG
Follow all the action from Day 1 in the blog below! If you can’t see the blog, click here.
Source Agencies
