Ariarne Titmus record 'obliterated' as swimming world left stunned
Aussie swim star Ariarne Titmus has seen her 400m freestyle short course world record smashed at the Chinese Swimming Championships.
Chinese star Li Bingjie produced the swim of her life to produce a stunning time of 3:51.30 to 'obliterate' Titmus' record by 2.6 seconds.
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To make matters even more surreal, a day after Li's swim, US rival Katie Ledecky and Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh both broke Titmus' record at the FINA Short Course World Cup.
Titmus set the previous record of 3:53.92 at the world short course championships back in 2018.
And it is fair to say the swimming world was absolutely stunned to see Li touch the wall in the 3:51 range.
To see the previous record also fall in a thrilling race between Ledecky and McIntosh reassured swimming fans that the 2024 Olympics will be special.
NEW WORLD RECORD! China's Li Bingjie just went 3:51.30 in the 400m freestyle and OBLITERATED the old World Record time of 3:53.92 by Ariarne Titmus 😳 pic.twitter.com/qstyZHv1CG
— Kyle Sockwell (@kylesockwell) October 27, 2022
Ummmm this came out of nowhere. No woman has ever touched 3:52 and Li Bingjie just went 3:51 LOW.
The 400m is shaping up to be a three-woman race in 2024 between Li, Titmus and Ledecky 🤯 https://t.co/sj6pnhJDdU— Laine Higgins (@lainehiggins17) October 27, 2022
Big news in the swimming world, Ariarne Titmus' 400m short course world record has just been absolutely obliterated.
Her time of 3:53.92 was recorded at the 2018 World Champs.
China's Li Bingjie has just swum a 3:51.30 at the Chinese Short Course Champs. #Swimming— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) October 27, 2022
Titmus opted not to compete in the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne later this year.
The Aussie star still holds the 400m long course record, which she set at the Australian championships earlier this year.
Titmus has been eyeing off a select number of meets since winning four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year.
The Australian has one eye on Paris 2024, which will now see a fierce showdown between her rivals.
McIntosh, 16, could be the one to watch in Paris after she defeated American swimming icon Ledecky in Toronto.
Katie Ledecky continues to smash records
Ledecky showed why she is arguably the greatest female swimmer of all time after beating the short course 1500m world record.
The great American swam a time of 15:08.24, which beat the previous world record by nearly 10 seconds.
The old record was set by Germany’s Sarah Wellbrock in 2019 when she swam 15:18.01.
Ledecky also nearly broke the 800m freestyle world record.
She will have an opportunity to break it next week and will aim to be just the third woman ever to record a time under eight minutes.
McIntosh continued to show why she could be a future great having recorded a time of 4:21.49 in the 400m individual medley, which was a junior world record.
Aussie Kyle Chalmers also won the 100m freestyle event in Toronto.
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