MELBOURNE: Ariarne Titmus smashed the 200m freestyle world record at the Australian Olympic trials in Brisbane today, upsetting the previous holder Mollie O’Callaghan in an exhilarating final.
Olympic champion Titmus clocked a time of 1:52.23s to shave more than half a second off O’Callaghan’s previous mark (1:52.85s) from last year’s World Championships in Fukuoka.
“Looking at the results, that’s unbelievable,” Titmus said pool-side.
“I’m just happy to finally produce a swim in the 200m that I feel like my training reflects.
“I think the field that we have is why we’re swimming so fast, we push each other every day.”
The final was a rematch of the Fukuoka event, when O’Callaghan edged Titmus in a thriller for the title.