Titmus upsets Ledecky, Sun retains title, Peaty crashes WR
4 min read
Ariarne Titmus (AUS) stunned Katie Ledecky (USA) to hand the American her first-ever defeat over 400m free at major international events. Sun Yang (CHN) claimed his 4th straight title in the same event among the men. The men’s 4x100m relay crown remained in the possession of the US team while the women’s one was passed back to Australia. The first World Record also fell right on the opening day of the swimming competition: Adam Peaty (GRB) became the first man swimming the 100m breast under 57 seconds.
Ariarne Titmus did what no other woman could in the past: beat Katie Ledecky in a 400m free race. It was a tremendous duel between the two greats, Titmus went out fast and kept leading in the first half of the event but Ledecky seemed to take the upper hand afterwards and turned first to the last lap holding a gap of 0.62sec. Then came something special: Titmus could find an extra gear to stun the American, creating a scene never seen before, that Ledecky is passed in the final leg. It happened, Titmus produced a 29.51 last 50 while Ledecky clocked 31.34 to fall behind by 1.21sec at the end.
Beforehand, the top 10 fastest ever times belonged to Ledecky, Titmus’ latest effort (3:58.76) now sits on the 8th place, kind of showing that the queen was a bit off her best this evening. The race for the bronze was no less exciting as Leah Smith of the US chased Hungarian prodigy Ajna Kesely from the start and managed to out-touch her by 0.02sec at the wall.
Before that, the session kicked off with another gold for Sun Yang who won the 400m free for the fourth time in a row. The podium was the same as two years ago in Budapest, the Chinese managed to beat Mack Horton and Gabriele Detti once more. While the Aussie and the Italian came somewhat faster than in 2017 – and a similar gap separated them: 0.06 here, 0.08 back then –, and Sun was a bit slower (3:41.28 in 2017, 3:42.44 now), still, he bested his rivals with ease.
The men’s 4x100m free relay was a true speed festival, it was amazing to see that the field got a lot faster in two years. While in 2017 seven swimmers clocked 47sec splits, not 19 (!) were in that range. The US quartet won with a new Championship Record (3:09.06), a brilliant feat as they brought down the shiny CR from Rome 2009 and was just 0.82 shy of their 2008 WR. Zach Apple threw in a 46.86 split in the second leg, a big boost for the team which gained 0.91sec on the runners-up Russians and the Aussies came third.
In the women’s relay Australia avenged their defeat in Budapest where the US reached the wall first. It took a thriller to get this outcome: at the halfway mark the US led but Canada took over at 300m while the Aussies turned second pushing the US back to third. Still, it came down to a showdown between Cate Campbell (AUS) and Simone Manuel (USA). Both produced an amazing homecoming leg, Campbell – missing from the show in 2017 – stormed to a truly incredible 51.45 split, Manuel also got inside 52sec but at the end it was a clear win for the women from Down Under. Canada clinched the bronze comfortably ahead of the Netherlands.
Though the title battles were in the spotlight, a couple of outstanding swims channelled a great deal of attention towards the semis as well. Above all, Adam Peaty’s historical 100m breast which saw the first male ever covering this distance inside 57sec. The British Lion roared again, beat his world record from last summer by 0.22 (56.88 is the new mark), a jaw-dropping performance right on the first day.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu also showed something special in the 200m IM where she is set to win a 4th straight title. She clocked 2:07.02 in the morning, the fastest heat swim ever and 2:07.17 in the evening, the 7th and 8th fastest time respectively in the all-time ranks. She admittedly eyes her 2015 WR (2:06.12) tomorrow but she might barely get a push from the others as she looked way better than the others.
On the contrary, women of the meet in 2017, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was already pushed by Canada’s Margaret Macneil who finished just 0.23sec behind her in the SF – Sjostrom was just 0.23sec better this evening. In the men’s 50m fly five swimmers already got under 23sec, as many as in the final in Budapest, and USA’s Caeleb Dressel was way faster than the winning time in 2017.
Source: FINA
