- The Australian champion faces a big challenge from her clubmate
- The pair met in the women’s 200m freestyle semi-final
- He has organised a grand final with the Australians to fight for gold.
Ariarne Titmus insists she had no intention of firing a warning shot at compatriot and club-mate Mollie O’Callaghan.
Titmus says she had only one plan when she competed with her fellow Australian in a cagey 200-meter freestyle semifinal on Sunday night at the Paris Olympics.
Australia failed to add two gold and two silver medals to those it had won in the pool some 24 hours earlier.
Emma McKeon was the only Dolphin in a final, finishing sixth in the women’s 100m butterfly.
Titmus and O’Callaghan comfortably advanced to Monday night’s 200-meter freestyle final as the top two finishers.
Titmus narrowly won over O’Callaghan but dismissed any significance to the result.
“In a final you always want to be in the middle of the pool and get a good position,” he said.
‘But that was really the only plan for tonight, I tried to conserve as much as I could.’
Titmus clocked one minute 54.64 seconds, six-hundredths of a second faster than O’Callaghan, who was second.
Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus faces a tough challenge within the Australian ranks.
Titmus’s clubmate Mollie O’Callaghan pushed her all the way in the 200m freestyle semi-final.
Six weeks ago Titmus broke O’Callaghan’s world record in the event and the Paris final looms as a showdown race between the swimmers, both coached by Dean Boxall.
Titmus is looking to become the first swimmer to successfully defend the 200m and 400m freestyle titles at an Olympic Games.
On Saturday night, she took the first leg of the double by winning the 400m freestyle, while O’Callaghan also claimed gold as part of Australia’s triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay team.
McKeon, Australia’s most successful Olympian, was unable to add to her medal haul in the 100m butterfly final when she finished sixth in a race won by American Torri Huske.
McKeon clocked 56.93 seconds as Huske (55.59) took gold ahead of fellow American and world record holder Gretchen Walsh (55.63).
“I was pretty slow, not what I expected, but that’s swimming,” McKeon said.
The medal race was McKeon’s final individual swim in an Olympic career in which he has collected six gold medals, more than any other Australian.
The 30-year-old, who was also part of Australia’s gold-medal-winning 4x100m freestyle relay team, will compete in the medley relay later in the Paris programme.
Emma McKeon finished sixth in the 100m butterfly final, her last Olympic individual swim.
Australian Olympic debutant Max Giuliani booked his place in Monday night’s men’s 200m freestyle final by finishing fifth fastest in the semi-finals.
“It was amazing, my first Olympics and now I’m going to my first final, which is amazing,” she said.
Giuliani’s Dolphins teammate Thomas Neill failed to advance and the Australians did not participate in the other two medal races on Sunday night.
French megastar Léon Marchand won the men’s 400m individual event to the delight of a sold-out crowd.
“I also got goosebumps before and during the race,” Marchand said.
‘I was trying to focus on myself, but it’s really hard when 15,000 people are cheering me on.’
Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won the men’s 100m breaststroke.