2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
Australian Ariarne Titmus swam to a new world record in the women’s 400 freestyle final, stopping the clock in 3:53.92 to break Wang Jianjiahe of China’s mark of 3:53.97 set in October. When Wang set that mark she broke the previous record of 3:54.52 held by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte.
Titmus swam head-to-head with Wang in the final, holding the lead at every single 50 to ultimately win by just over six-tenths of a second. Wang ended up winning silver in 3:54.56, and her countrymate Li Bingjie was 3rd in 3:57.99.
Titmus had narrowly missed the Australian Record in the prelims in 3:58.58, a time that ranked her 20th all-time, and now shoots up to the top of the list with this swim. Along with the world record, she erases Joanne Jackson‘s Commonwealth Record of 3:54.92 from 2009, Lauren Boyle‘s Oceanian Record of 3:55.16 from 2013, and Blair Evans‘ Aussie Record of 3:58.16 from 2011.
Check out a split comparison of the two world record swims below:
| Wang, 2018 FINA World Cup | Titmus, 2018 SC Worlds |
| 26.97 | 26.93 |
| 29.34 (56.31) | 29.15 (56.08) |
| 29.59 (1:25.90) | 29.38 (1:25.46) |
| 29.68 (1:55.58) | 29.91 (1:55.37) |
| 29.76 (2:25.34) | 29.84 (2:25.21) |
| 29.83 (2:55.17) | 29.73 (2:54.94) |
| 29.91 (3:25.08) | 29.70 (3:24.64) |
| 28.89 (3:53.97) | 29.28 (3:53.92) |
Titmus’ pace was slightly ahead of Wang’s the whole way, with Wang only out-splitting her on three of the eight 50s.
Titmus now has a pair of gold medals here, also winning the 200 free on day 1.
You are all forgetting Ariarne has little SCM experience,in fact 15yr old Lani Pallister beat her at Aussie Trials over 800m and she will improve, Ledecky does not swim SCM
A rough guesstimate, what does the new WR convert to LC?
Using SwimSwam’s conversion tool, 3:53.92 SCM converts to 4:00.31 LCM.
yeah, watch out Ledecky.*insert eye roll* 4:00.31 is pretty pedestrian by Ledecky standards.
One could say that she is Ledeckys strongest competition at the moment and could give her a run in 2020.
I think you are talking about 400 event only.
I would say that in 200 Sjostrom is still the strongest competitor should she swim this event and then Ruck.
In 800 – still nobody
And the 1500 competition moves actually backward after retirement of such outstanding swimmers like Friis and Boyle.
But 3.59 by Titmus is a very serious threat remembering that Katie is consistent 3:58 swimmer. The cushion is too thin to compete in this event losing focus.
Ledecky lost to both Ruck and Ikee in 2 free. Titmus is doing really well in that event and I think there is lot to improve on that event given her raw speed (i.e. only 55 secs in 100 free.) could improve lot.
What Ledecky can do in 200 is an interesting question. Two seasons in a row she couldn’t swim final race under 1:55 to show next day outstanding splits in 800 relay.
To be competitive in 200 Titmus has to have her personal best at 100 under 54 sec. It’s not obvious that she would be capable to do so.
Should she swim 200 in Tokyo we would have a clear picture about her prospects in this event and if the breaking of 4 min barrier corresponds to the improvement of her sprinting skills. But she hasn’t done that focusing entirely on the race against Ledecky in 400. So we have only 9 months old personal best that is… Read more »
It is the exact time pro Ledecky swam at her recent race with clear water & no opposition. .AT raced it in a major meet , in the backyard of her rivals .
Her 200 was superior to KLs1.54.6 vs 1.55.3 using the same conversions . Wang is the one with the turns based on her LC but AT held her off . Bing & Smith have fallen away & probably are being discounted as threats as we write.
So I’d say December apples are about equal .
The converter is a big BS. Don’t take it seriously. One of the best examples is the conversion of 200 free results for Ledecky and Frenklin. For Katie it’s almost an ideal match. The conversion in Missy’s case makes her world record holder. She wasn’t even close to such a time in Kazan just three months after phenomenal race at NCAA.
The best converter in this case can be performances of Chinese girls. Remarkable consistency all season long both in short and long pool. Use their 2018 or Belmonte’s 2013 times to have an idea. Of course it is all individual. For example, Wang doesn’t have strong finish, but Li does have being significantly faster than Titmus at last fifty. So by averaging these results you may have an estimate how W400FR SCM are related to the similar LCM performances at top area of results.
I think that Titmus was better racing against Ledecky in Tokyo than she was today. I expected her to be in the 3:52 area.
Watch out Katie Ledecky, Ariarne is coming for you next!
Brilliant! Be interesting to see if she swims 800 next year . Lani Pallister beat her in the 800 short course at Australian champs in October this year. Looking good for Australia
Brilliantly good!
I don’t think she was tapered or racing hard there at those trials you only need to look at the times she swam for the 200-800 to figure that out. She definitely still creams pallister.
Brilliant swim by the Terminator!