TOKYO: Australia's Ariarne Titmus clocked the Oceania record to claim the women's 400m freestyle crown from Katie Ledecky in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Coach Dean Boxall's expressions as he cheered her on said it all. While he started with a regular cheer, he went all out as he realised Titmus was on to something special.
In one of the most anticipated races of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Titmus won the gold medal in 3:56.69, the second-fastest time in history. She chased down the defending champion Katie Ledecky to take the Olympic title.
American Ledecky, the defending Olympic champion, and world-record holder finished runners-up at 3:57.36. "I fought tooth and nail," Olympics.com quoted Ledecky. "She definitely swam a really smart race. She was really controlled upfront. I felt pretty smooth and strong going out and flipped at the 300 and it was like, 'Oh, she's right there."
For the first time in her Olympic career, Ledecky lost in an individual final. And Titmus, nicknamed "The Terminator", is overjoyed at beating perhaps the greatest women's freestyle swimmer in history.
"It's surreal," Titmus said. "Crazy when you make this massive plan for something. It's probably the biggest thing you could pull off in your sporting career, so I'm over the moon."
The bronze went to China's LI Bingjie at 4:01.08. Ledecky lost an individual Olympic final for the first time after winning the 800 free at the 2012 London Games, then capturing three more golds in the 200, 400, and 800 free at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Ledecky and Titmus go head to head again in the 200m freestyle event.