Titmus wins 200m gold
Aussie freestyler breaks records
TEENAGER Ariarne Titmus has secured Australia’s first gold medal of the world shortcourse swimming titles in China with a record-breaking 200m freestyle win.
The 18-year-old mowed down American Mallory Comerford and the Netherlands’ Femke Heemskerk in the last 50 metres to claim victory in 1min 51.38sec — a Commonwealth, Oceania and national record.
Titmus’ stirring effort on the opening night of the sixday event at Hangzhou shattered Emma McKeon’s mark of 1:51.66 set at the 2015 national short course titles. It also moved the teenager to fourth on the all-time rankings.
“I have been working on my speed, so I am glad it paid off,” Titmus said.
“I knew the back end was my strength, so I just tried to play to that and it worked.
“It is my first individual world title, so it is a good stepping stone to next year, with world championships and then Olympics after that.”
Australia missed out on a second medal by just 0.05 of a second in the men’s 200m individual medley final.
Champion backstroker Mitch Larkin was touched out for bronze by Japan’s Hiromasa Fujimori, while China’s Wang Shun took gold.
Larkin earlier scraped into the men’s 100m backstroke final as eighth-fastest behind top qualifier and world recordholder Xu Jiayu of China.
Australia’s team of Cameron McEvoy, Louis Townsend, Jack Gerrard and Alex Gra- ham finished fifth in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, with a Caeleb Dressel-inspired United States claiming gold in a world record (3:03.03).
Rookie Nic Brown locked a personal best 1:52.10 to finish seventh in the men’s 200m butterfly final behind Japan’s Daiya Seto, who claimed gold in a new world mark of 1:48.24. Veteran Emily Seebohm was fifth-fastest for the women’s 100m backstroke final, with teammate Minna Atherton sixth-fastest behind top qualifier, Olivia Smoliga of the US.
Seebohm (14th) missed a place in the 50m breaststroke final, but Jessica Hansen nabbed the last spot in the field by winning a swim-off with Japan’s Miho Teramura after they tied for eighth-fastest in the semis.