DPA
Paris
Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus defended her women’s 400-metre freestyle gold at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, while American superstar Katie Ledecky had to settle for bronze.
Titmus set the fastest time of 3 minutes 57.49 seconds to defeat Canada’s Summer McIntosh by 0.88 seconds. Ledecky was 3.37 seconds away from her gold medal dream.
"It’s a little bit more emotional, this one, than the first one. I know what it feels like to be an Olympic champion. It’s a different feeling. I know how hard it is racing in these circumstances, at an Olympic Games. The noise, atmosphere, pressure,” Titmus said.
"My legs are a bit tired, but I’m relieved more than anything. I probably felt the pressure for this race more than anything in my life to be honest. And I’m definitely good at handling the pressure, but I’ve definitely felt it,” she added.
Ledecky won gold in the same event in Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo 2020. It’s her third Olympic medal in the event - the most of any athlete - and eight individual Olympic medal overall.
"I would like to have been faster, so just a little disappointed that I could not bring my best today,” she said. "But a medal is a medal.” The United States, however, celebrated their first gold medal in Paris in the men’s 4x100m relay, finishing 1.07 seconds before the silver medal team, Australia. Italy won bronze.
In the men’s 400m freestyle, Lukas Martens claimed the first gold and overall medal for Germany at the Paris Olympics.
The 22-year-old set the fastest time of 3:41.78 minutes, beating Elijah Winnington of Australia by 0.43 seconds. Kim Woo-min of South Korea took bronze, 0.72 seconds off the pace.
He’s now the first German male winner in indoor swimming since Uwe Dassler took the title for East Germany at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Silver medallist Winnington said of his achievement: "I was fortunate enough to win a medal in the 4x200m (relay) heat (at Tokyo 2020). I haven’t ever told anybody this, but I’ve never actually looked at that medal because I didn’t think I’d earned it.
"So having a medal around my neck tonight on the dais is going to be really, really special for me.” Britain’s twice Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty was fastest in the men’s event semi-finals to reach the battle for gold after clocking 58.86 seconds.
Peaty, looking for a third consecutive Olympic title in the discipline, has spoken openly about his mental health struggles since winning in Tokyo.
But he looks favourite to become just the second male swimmer after Michael Phelps to win gold at three straight Games.
"I don’t want to come out there tomorrow and be anxious. Of course you’re going to have nerves. I embrace the nerves, I love the nerves, but whatever the result tomorrow I want to finish with a smile and knowing that I’ve given my all with no mistakes,” he said.
Australia took gold in the women’s 4x100m relay, setting a new Olympic record of 3:28.92 minutes.
The US took silver, while bronze went to China.
American Gretchen Walsh, meanwhile, set a new Olympic record on her way to the women’s 100m butterfly final with the fastest time of 55.38 seconds in the semi-finals.
She now holds both Olympic and world records (55.18 seconds) at the event.
China claim sixth straight women’s 3m synchro
diving gold
Earlier, Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen claimed gold as China dominated the women’s Olympic 3 metres springboard synchronised diving for the sixth time in a row.
Triple world champions Chang and Chen amassed 337.68 points in their Olympic debut, with the only very minor hiccup coming in the fourth and penultimate jump when they entered the water not quite at the same distance from the board after 3 1/2 summersaults.
America pair Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver with 314.64 and bronze, like at the recent world championships, went to Britons Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen with 302.28 points in the eight-team final.
The Britons profited from a final mistake from Australian 2016 bronze medallists Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith who dropped from third to fifth.
"I made a pretty big mistake, when we were in a good position to medal, but that’s diving.
"Sometimes you can’t control that, it’s just unlucky,” said Smith, who jumped right off the edge of the board.
"We’ve been doing synchro together for 10 years now, and been through lots of highs and lots of lows together. We are here for each other.
We’re going to reset and go again, we don’t stop.”
Saturday’s triumph was gold number six from seven Olympic editions of the event for diving super power China, having only lost out to Russians at the 2000 debut.