Ariarne Titmus made history at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday as Australia set a new world record to win the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay in a time of 7 minutes, 39.29 seconds.
The Aussies beat the previous best, set by China at the Tokyo Olympics, by 1.04 seconds.
✔️World Record ⏲️ 7:39.29
— FINA (@fina1908) August 1, 2022
✔️200m fastest split ever ⏲️ 1:52.82
✔️🥇🥇🥇🥇
🇦🇺 @SwimmingAUS smashes World Record in the Women’s 4x200 Freestyle Relay as Ariarne Titmus splits fastest ever! #swimming @birminghamcg22 pic.twitter.com/IFYaYViBg9
Titmus anchored the relay with a time of 1:52.82, the fastest relay split ever. She became the first woman to break 1:53 in a relay split.
The world record in the 200-meter individual freestyle is 1:52.98, set by Federica Pellegrini at the 2009 world championships. Those world championships were the last of the super suit era, as the suits were later banned at the beginning of 2010.
Titmus touched first for Australia, more than 12 seconds ahead of Canada, which took silver, and another five seconds ahead of England, which finished in third.
Also on Sunday, Emma McKeon became the most successful athlete in Commonwealth Games history, winning her 11th career gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle. She surpassed fellow Australian swimmers Ian Thorpe, Susie O’Neill and Leisel Jones for most career golds at the Games.
“It is a fun event for me, the 50. I feel like I am a lot more relaxed this year than last year,” McKeon said. “I have not done as much work as I had this time last year but the place I am in mentally is showing in my performances.”
In total, McKeon has won 16 Commonwealth Games medals. With four more races to go, she could surpass the record of 18 career medals.