2019 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, April 7th – Friday, April 12th
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
- LCM
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- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4
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As a reminder this meet is NOT a World Championships qualifying affair. The Australian World Championships Trials take place in June.
While competing on the penultimate night of the 2019 Australian National Championships, 18-year-old Ariarne Titmus matched her own Australian, Oceanic and Commonwealth Record in the women’s 400m freestyle. Clocking a time of 3:59.66, Titmus’ time tonight equals the mark she put up for silver at last year’s Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo to finish behind American icon Katie Ledecky.
Matching the same time, Titmus’ race splits were essentially the same as well between her Pan Pacs performance and what the teen produced tonight.
Pan Pacs – 57.47, 1:58.31, 2:59.20, 3:59.66
2019 Aussie Nationals – 57.17, 1:57.91, 2:59.34, 3:59.66
– 27.50, 29.67, 30.32, 30.42, 30.59, 39.84, 30.52, 29.79
Titmus’ time keeps the St. Peters Western on the list of just 3 swimmers worldwide who have ever broken the 4:00 barrier in the event, with the Aussie positioned above American Olympic medalist Leah Smith and British Olympic legend Rebecca Adlington.
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FASTEST PERFORMERS EVER
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| 1 | Katie Ledecky | 3:56.46 |
| 2 | Federica Pellegrini | 3:59.15 |
| 3 | Ariarne Titmus | 3:59.66 |
| 4 | Joanne Jackson | 4:00.60 |
| 5 | Leah Smith | 4:00.65 |
| 6 | Rebecca Adlington | 4:00.79 |
| 7 | Camille Muffat | 4:01.13 |
| 8 | Jazz Carlin | 4:01.23 |
| 9 | Li Bingjie | 4:01.75 |
| 10 | Allison Schmitt | 4:01.77 |
Titmus already fired off a new National Record in the women’s 200m free earlier in this meet, firing off a wicked-fast 1:54.30 to become the 5th fastest performer in history.
54 100m, 1.54 200m, 3.59 400m and 8.18 800m – a pretty amazing week by anyone standards-in a comp where you are not laying down qualifying times or places for a major championship. The WC trials in June will be even more interesting!
Peculiar breathing pattern. Every 2 strokes 2 times, then 1 time every 4. Changing sides every now and then.
She got choppy in the second half. It appears her improvement in the shorter distances did not translate to the 400. A beautiful swimmer to watch, but I don’t see her as a threat to Ledecky in the 400 right now.
A threat, yes… but Ledecky is still a couple of seconds ahead. Will be great to see the competition this summer.
I thought it was a problem with streaming 😀 Indeed very (to put it mildly) unusual style of breathing. Like she suddenly remembers that she actually has to breath to live. 😀
Janet Evans also breath with irregular breathing pattern. It was very obvious because the way her head bobs up above the water when she breath.
She would’ve been a monster in open water. Her stroke was kind of a natural ‘sighting’ stroke.
I remember Janet Evans very well, rather than having just an unusual breathing pattern she had an awkward movement of head and body, almost like swimming half butterfly half crawl. But it clearly worked for her.
When I see mid-distance swimmers like Titmus not breathing every other stroke I always wonder about the trade-off between air intake and breaking streamline and rhythm. I believe Michael Phelps was the first swimmer to set a WR in the 200 free breathing every other stroke.
Ledecky swam this way under Yuri Suguiyama but very soon Bruce Gemmell changed it making her breathing more frequently and on one side only. I think it is not only about air intake and streamline. Both her coaches admitted that her left hand stroke is very powerful after breathing on right side.
(Not really familiar with swimming terminology in English. Hope it was clear what I meant 😀 )
She has got the same gallop as other swimmers, Katie. This is because she keeps one harm extended longer than the other.
Correct me if I am wrong, back then it was encouraged to withhold breathing whenever possible? Forgo a breath or two every lap? Anyway Janet Evans was great at holding her breath especially in the final lap. She would submerged most of her head in the water and with her high stroke rate, her arms would keep rotating, and her body would be fully horizontal and no longer undulate like usual and water would splash over her swimming cap into the air. 3 full (complete) strokes, one big bob for air, another 3-4 full strokes for the wall. Quite a sight. Sorry I digressed off topic..
It was like she was waltzing in her mind. Maybe such a broken uneven rhythm keeps her mind sharp not sleeping away with monotonous stroke for long period of time.
Potentially Katie is stronger 400FR swimmer than Ariarne. She was three years younger than Titmus swimming at 3:59 level and was able then to bring down each 100 by almost 1sec. But her personal bests are her personal records meaning that breaking them is a big deal for her. Her reliable zone was 3:58.
Titmus on the other hand has no problem to swim close to her best. So at the actual race the difference between swimmers under normal circumstances is about one body length. It’s not a dominance for sure and everything can happen. I was more than positive that Ledecky wouldn’t have any problem to win 200FR in Budapest after spectacular race in Rio a year before.… Read more »
Ariarne to Katie
One question is how fast can Katie go with an actual challenge? All that training, all those races with zero challenge except for beating herself. Self-motivation only goes so far. Maybe shouldn’t have kicked the hornet’s nest and saved this for Worlds.
Katie was 3:57 and 8:07 not to mention world record (1500) in May last year swimming without any competition in low key PSS meet. Without competition but not without motivation: she was on the Market at that time. She told that it was the nicest ever block of training that caused these results but I had some doubts that she was frankly. It was just month away from NCAA finals where she was supposed to be tapered.
The video: https://twitter.com/7Sport/status/1116310015537664001
honestly, I think she could beat ledecky this year
No one can stay on top for ever….eventually someone will beat Ledecky, it already happened in 200 free. Ledecky had or has great period of domination
I think Wang Jianjiahe will as well!
I didn’t think that I would be worried about Ledecky winning something until at least 2023ish, but this is a little scary. Ledecky won’t go down without a fight, and her 400 is rivaled by none atm.
I think at least for this year Ledecky will win 800 and 1500 for sure. 400 is a little dangerous. In 200 she’s not the favorite now.
I’m not confident she’ll even medal in the 200
Have to agree – She’ll potentially have 4200 metres in her legs come the 200 free final, and more depending on the 4×100. They’ll have to swim hard in the 200 semi final too with this depth. Winning a medal in the 200 will be an extraordinary achievement.
I don’t think she’s swimming the 400 free relay. I only think a certain gold medal for her is in the 1500 free.
Sweeping 200-400-800-1500 golds in 2015 was a very incredible achievement of Ledecky. She had to swim 200 semi shortly after the 1500 final, and then adjusted her body for the 200 final on the second day. It’s an achievement that’s extremely hard to replicate, even for herself. People shouldn’t take it for granted.
It’s not a news that you aren’t confided. Tell us something more interesting.
We have very little information to make any conclusions about potentials of Ariarne Titmus in 400FR. If you know, please share.
We don’t know how much of importance this meet was to her and if she was maximum prepared. We don’t know her plans for this meet and if she focused mostly on shorter distances taking to the longer ones the whatever-it-would-be approach.
What we know for sure that she became much better with her row speed. Not long time ago let say in the time of Missy Franklin the 54.2 result will definitely qualify a swimmer a sprinter.
She dropped 1 sec in 100, 0.5sec in 200 and nothing in 400. Is it just a coincidence… Read more »
To 3:59’s are more than very little information.
She’s in full training and untapered unlike at the Pan Pacs so that makes this swim more impressive than Pan Pacs.
“Remarkably, the 18-year-old was competing in Adelaide at the nationals while still in full training and without a taper heading into the meet.”
https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/swimming/titmus-equals-aussie-400m-freestyle-record-ng-s-1937463
She is in work for the trials in a couple of months and had already had quite a few races in the meet. She said that last year the sight of Ledecky’s feet was something that spurred her on as she realised she was in-touch with the WR-holder. This time she had nothing to chase so tried to imagine Ledecky ahead of her as some motivation. Earlier she admitted her starts and turns are not her best skills and will have to work on these.
She also has had her coach for 3ish years when these time drops have happened we need to remember before that Titmus was in Tasmania where the coaching and facilities available are goodish but not really that great. Imagine what she can do with another 18 months.