Tokyo 2020: Ariarne Titmus wins 200m freestyle gold

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus has won gold in the women’s 200m freestyle, breaking the Olympic record for the event in the process.

In her battle in the pool with the USA’s Katie Ledecky, the Australian came out on top and added a second gold to the 400m freestyle medal she took on Monday.

The event is Ledecky’s weakest format, and she finished fifth, her worst ever showing in an Olympic event. It is also the first time she has finished outside of the top-two positions in her Olympic career.

Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong took the silver, while Penny Olksiak of Canada was in the bronze-medal position.

Titmus began slowly, and she was touching fifth at the first turn. On the second lap, she started to surge – she was fourth at the 100m, and then third at the final turn. Neither Haughey nor Olksiask could do anything as the Australian swam home in a time of 1:53.50.

After her win, Titmus said: “I’m pretty good at containing my emotion. That’s something I had to do really well after the 400m, because the 200m was right after. I think it’s a bit of a skill trying to contain it and back up. But now that I haven’t got a swim tonight I kind of let it out a bit. Seeing him emotional makes me emotional. This is a great partnership. This is not just me winning – this is him winning as well.”

Asked how she was feeling, she said: “I’m bloody exhausted. That was a tough one – I knew Siobhan really wanted this, I could tell by the way that she swam yesterday. So I knew it would be tough to beat her. Honestly, it’s not the time that I thought I could do this morning, but it’s the Olympics and there’s a lot of other things going on, so it’s just about winning here. I’m very happy.”

Titmus and Ledecky could meet again in the 800m freestyle – the heats begin on Thursday, and it expected that both women should make it through to the final. The pair will also likely face off during the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.