2018 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING TRIALS
- Wednesday, February 28th – Saturday, March 3rd
- Optus Aquatic Centre, Marine Parade, Southport, Queensland
- Prelims at 11:00am local (8pm EST previous night)/Finals at 7:15pm local (4:15am EST)
- LCM
- Meet Central
- Selection Criteria (including QTs)
- Start Lists
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Live Stream (prelims only)
- Live Results
Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
Day 3 Prelims Recap/ Day 3 Finals Recap
Competing on the penultimate night of the 2018 Australian Trials, the Tasmanian teen was at it again, as 17-year-old freestyle ace Ariarne Titmus secured her 3rd gold medal of these championships. Having scorched a new 400m freestyle national record in an earlier session in addition to taking the 200m free gold, Titmus blasted a big-time personal best of 8:20.08 in this women’s 800m freestyle to complete a freestyle trifecta.
With her victory tonight, Titmus became the first swimmer in 14 years and only the 6th Australian ever to sweep the 200m/400m/800m freestyle events. Her winning effort tonight checks Titmus in as the 2nd fastest Australian ever in the event, sitting only behind Jess Ashwood’s NR of 8:18.14 from 2016.
Ashwood finished with the silver in 8:29.08, also an A cut, while open water swimmer Kiah Melverton also landed on the podium with bronze in 8:31.08.
For her trio of efforts in Southport this week, Titmus now ranks as the #2 swimmers in the world this season across the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle events.
2017-2018 LCM WOMEN 200 FREE
RUCK
1.54.44
| 2 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 1.54.56 | 06/08 |
| 3 | Rikako IKEE | JPN | 1.54.85 | 08/09 |
| 3 | Ariarne TITMUS | AUS | 1.54.85 | 04/05 |
| 5 | Charlotte BONNET | FRA | 1.54.95 | 08/06 |
2017-2018 LCM WOMEN 400 FREE
LEDECKY
3.57.94
| 2 | Ariarne TITMUS | AUS | 3.59.66 | 08/11 |
| 3 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 4.01.75 | 09/01 |
| 4 | Leah SMITH | USA | 4.02.21 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Jianjiahe WANG | CHN | 4.03.14 | 03/03 |
2017-2018 LCM WOMEN 800 FREE
LEDECKY
8.07.27
| 2 | Simona QUADARELLA | ITA | 8.16.35 | 08/04 |
| 3 | Ariarne TITMUS | AUS | 8.17.07 | 08/09 |
| 4 | Leah SMITH | USA | 8.17.21 | 08/09 |
| 5 | Jianjiahe WANG | CHN | 8.18.09 | 03/01 |
Assessing her overall performance, Titmus says of her swims, “I’m really happy I’m on the team now and I get to do those three swims (200m free, 400m free, 800m free). I worked hard for this, so I’m pretty happy.
“I suppose I was pretty close to the (Australian) record (8:18.40), I thought I’d be a bit closer tonight.
“I obviously have some things to work on leading into the Games, so it’s something I can look forward to.
“I was probably aiming for the 8:18 mark. It was a good swim, but I want to go faster. So hopefully I can do that at the Games.”
Titmus is setting new Australian records, and she’s a relative newcomer.
Her times puts her in the mix for the finals and medals at the Big Meets to come.
As of now she looks pretty much like ‘Leah Smith’ type of swimmer who distinguish herself at 400 event with her ranking almost symmetrically declining on both sides at 200 and 800. But she is too young to make a conclusion where she will progress most or where she will succeeded most at the current level of competition.
At Worlds this series of swims would have had her as 200m finalist , Bronze at 400 & 4th at 800 . Ranking wise its not a big drop off either side of the 400.
She hasn’t raced since mid December so its basically a hit out . The times may not be better at CWGs but I’d say she is sitti g well prepared & ready to take on the very experienced Carlin .
I’m not implying that her rankings are not good. I was trying to say that she is not like Allison Schmitt and Camille Muffat who were very good at 200 and 400 but didn’t compete at 800. And she isn’t like Rebecca Addington who was great at 400 and 800 but not as much in 200.
In case of Titmus it looks like she is very good at 400 and doesn’t have preferences 200 or 800. In both these events she has almost even rankings. Therefore the mentioned in article trifecta shouldn’t surprise.
The difference is that Smith targets the foot of Ledecky and Titmus does it her own.