TITMUS LINES UP AGAINST CHAMPION – FOR NOW
ARIARNE Titmus will go head-to-head with distance queen Katie Ledecky over the 400m and 800m at the Pan Pacs next month but could drop the event in which she has most chance of beating the Olympic champion.
Titmus has entered the 200m freestyle at next month’s Tokyo championships but will focus on distance events at the meet and may not swim the individual four-lap event.
Ledecky holds the world record in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle – all events she will swim in Tokyo next month.
And while she won Olympic gold in the 200m in Rio, she was beaten at last year’s world championships and is most vulnerable over the shorter distance.
While Ledecky holds the world’s fastest time in the event this year, it is just 0.25sec ahead of Canadian Taylor Ruck – who won Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast – and 0.29 ahead of Titmus.
But Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren said Titmus would focus on the longer events at Pan Pacs and hinted she may not race the 200m.
“She’s focusing a little bit more on the longer distance at the moment,” Verhaeren said. “That’s long-term planning. It’s definitely her (long-term) aim (to take on Ledecky). With a younger athlete, it’s good coming from a little bit more volume coming down leading into an Olympics.”