FUKUOKA (AFP) – Katie Ledecky threw down the gauntlet to women’s 400-metre (m) freestyle rivals Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh at swimming’s world championships yesterday, finishing fastest in the morning’s heats.
The three will go head to head later in the day in one of the most eagerly anticipated races of the championships in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, Japan.
Defending champion Ledecky of the United States clocked the morning’s fastest time with 4 minutes, 00.80 seconds, ahead of Australia’s Olympic champion Titmus on 4:01.39.
Canada’s McIntosh, the world record holder, had the third-fastest time with 4:01.72.
The three have not gone head to head since the final of the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.
McIntosh broke Titmus’s world record in March this year, clocking 3:56.08. France’s Leon Marchand geared up to take a crack at Michael Phelps’s long-standing 400m individual medley world record by qualifying seconds in the heats.
Phelps’s benchmark time of 4 minutes, 03.84 seconds has stood since the 2008 Beijing Olympics but Marchand swam the second-fastest time ever at last year’s world championships in Budapest.
Marchand clocked 4:10.88 in the heats to claim the second-best time behind American Carson Foster on 4:09.83, and ahead of Japan’s Daiya Seto on 4:10.89. Marchand, who is coached by Phelps’s former mentor Bob Bowman, said he thought he could “do better tonight”.
“It was cool – I couldn’t wait to get started,” said the 21-year-old.
“The course was a bit long at the end. I did a good first 200 and that’s what I wanted to do.” Meanwhile, Australian rising star Sam Short will attempt to claim his first individual world championship medal in the men’s 400m freestyle.
