(Fukuoka) Australian Ariarne Titmus set a new world record in the 400m freestyle with a time of 3:55.38, winning the final of the World Championships on Sunday in Fukuoka (Japan).
The 22-year-old reigning Olympic champion improved on the record held by young Canadian Summer McIntosh, long in the race before breaking down in the last two lengths and taking fourth place.
Titmus won her second world title in this discipline, beating American Katie Ledecky. New Zealander Erika Fairweather completes the podium.
Titmus thus recovers the record which McIntosh, 16, had deprived her of last March, improving it by seven tenths.
The Australian, already titled over the distance at the 2019 Worlds in Gwangju (South Korea), largely dominated an extremely tough final.
She held up well to the return of reigning world champion Katie Ledecky, who despite everything won a 23rd world medal.
Ariarne Titmus confirms his status in the 400m, two years after winning Olympic gold, already ahead of the ogre Katie Ledecky.
French swimming prodigy Léon Marchand struck a blow by smashing Michael Phelps’ last world record on Sunday at the Worlds.
Marchand clocked 4:02.50 to retain his 400m medley title, one year from the Paris Olympics.
“It’s excellent, I train every day for it. There I break my time by two seconds, I make the record so it’s great, “said Marchand, after setting a stratospheric time, one second and three tenths less than the time of American legend Michael Phelps.
The 21-year-old Frenchman improves his personal best by two seconds and erases the last individual world record still in force from Phelps, present in Fukuoka for American television. It was the oldest record in world swimming.
” It was crazy ! The weather is crazy! “, he savored before receiving his gold medal, precisely from the hands of the man with 23 Olympic titles with whom he shares the same coach, the American Bob Bowman.
Like last year, the Frenchman was ahead of the American Carson Foster, 21 like him. While he had distanced his runner-up by two seconds last year, this time he preceded him by more than four seconds.