Ariarne Titmus toppled American Katie Ledecky again at the Olympics, defending her 400-meter freestyle title in one of the most anticipated races of the Paris Games.
Titmus, the Australian star known as “The Terminator”, won a race that the American won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, handing Ledecky his second consecutive defeat in the race.
With his nails painted Australian yellow, Titmus led from start to finish. The 23-year-old faced her toughest challenge from Canadian phenomenon Summer McIntosh, but won comfortably in three minutes and 57.49 seconds.
“I probably felt the anticipation and pressure for this race more than anything in my life, to be honest, and I’m pretty good at dealing with pressure, but I definitely felt it,” Titmus said.
“I am very happy to achieve the result and I feel very honored to be part of the race and to be alongside legends like Katie.
“I really admire her as an athlete and there is certainly no rivalry beyond racing. I really respect her as a person,” Titmus added.
Canadian McIntosh, 17, won silver in 3:58.37, while American Ledecky was behind her and won bronze in 4:00.86.
Ledecky remains with six individual gold medals in her glittering career – still the most of any swimmer in Olympic history.
Titmus now has three individual Olympic victories to his growing resume. She swept the 200 and 400 freestyles in Tokyo and is the favorite to achieve the same double in Paris.
Ledecky isn’t done yet. She missed out on facing Titmus again in the 200 meter freestyle, but the American is the favorite to take gold in the 800 and 1,500 meter events.
Maertens wins gold in men’s 400m freestyle for Germany
Lukas Maertens of Germany became the first swimming champion at the Paris Olympics after winning his first Olympic gold in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, held shortly before the women’s event.
Emerging triumphant from a final packed with world champions, Maertens touched the wall in three minutes and 41.78 seconds to finish ahead of Australian silver medalist Elijah Winnington and South Korean bronze medalist Kim Woo-min at La Defense Arena.
Maertens, 22, entered the race with this year’s fastest time and took the biggest stage to become the first German winner in the event since Uwe Dassler took the title for East Germany at the 1988 Seoul Games.
The German ran at a world record pace until the final 50 meters, and that was enough, despite the quick finish from Winnington, who won his second Olympic medal.
Australia sets Olympic record in women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay
Australia went two for two against rivals the USA in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay, winning their fourth consecutive Olympic title in that event.
The quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris set an Olympic record with a winning time of three minutes and 28.92 seconds.
The Americans – Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Simone Manuel – recovered to take silver in 3:30.20. They bested the Chinese team of Yang Junxuan, Cheng Yujie, Zhang Yufei and Wu Qingfeng by a tenth of a second.
Dressel leads USA to gold in men’s 4x100m freestyle relay
A U.S. team led by Caeleb Dressel won the gold medal in the men’s Olympic 4×100 meter relay.
The quartet of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong and Dressel reached home in three minutes and 9.28 seconds, with Australia taking silver in 3:10.35 and Italy bronze in 3:10.70.
But the US had its work cut out after the opening stage, with Chinese 100m world record holder Pan Zhanle turning in two scorching laps.
The dominant Americans returned to contention with Dressel leading them to the finish line.
Kyle Chalmers produced an incredible final leg to hand Australia silver, with his 46.59 the fastest split of any swimmer.
The US has long dominated the event, winning 10 of the 14 times it was on the Olympic program before Paris. They only lost first place in 2000 (Australia), 2004 (South Africa) and 2012 (France), and as a result of the boycott in 1980.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
