O’Callaghan upsets Titmus with year’s fastest 200m freestyle
The HinduMollie O’Callaghan upset Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus with the fastest 200m freestyle of the year Thursday to book a world championship slot from a stacked field at the Australian trials. Reigning 100m world champion O’Callaghan produced a sizzling final 50m to touch in 1:53.83 ahead of Titmus, who easily won the 400 free on the opening night of the meet in Melbourne on Tuesday. Both qualified for the world championships in Japan next month and will be hot favourites alongside American great Katie Ledecky and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh, who previously held the year’s quickest time. Prodigious young talent Sam Short, 19, put himself in gold medal contention by swimming the world’s fastest 800m freestyle this year, by nearly two seconds, hitting the wall in 7:40.39.