The Australian women’s 200m freestyle relay team have regained their title as the best on the planet after smashing the world record in a stunning effort at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Even though top-flight nations like China and the United States were not present, there was no questioning the dominant nature of their swim.
Ariarne Titmus claimed a personal world record in the anchor leg with a lightning-fast split of 1:52.82 seconds, with the overall world record shattered by the quartet of Titmus, Madi Wilson, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kiah Melverton.
The image that shows how dominant Titmus’ anchor leg was in the women’s 200m freestyle relay at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, leaving her Canadian rival in her wake
The effort from Titmus meant the team sliced more than a second off the previous world record of 7:40.33 set by China at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Amazingly, Australia accomplished the feat while resting record-setting freestyle swimmer Emma McKeon for the relay.
The win comes after a disappointing third place finish at last year’s Tokyo Olympics when the team were hot favourites to take the title.
Titmus was also missing due to Covid for the recent world championships, where the Australian team finished behind the United States to claim silver.
This time around, everything fell into place beautifully.
Wilson, O’Callaghan and Melverton cheer Titmus home (top left), the winners celebrate (top right) and stand on the podium with their gold medals after the world-record swim in the 200m freestyle relay in Birmingham
In a stunning admission, she said she felt ‘slow’ in her world-record swim.
‘I’m really happy to be able to perform for the girls,’ Titmus said afterwards.
‘I mean, in the past…
Source : dailymail
