With nine different events on tap on the first day of swimming competition at the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday morning in Fukuoka, Japan, there was little doubt that the fourth and fifth heats of the women’s 400-metre freestyle preliminaries would serve as the highlight.
Within the span of 10 minutes, former world record holder Ariarne Titmus of Australia breezed to a first-place finish in the fourth heat with a time of four minutes: and 1.39 seconds, setting the stage for American swimming legend Katie Ledecky (4:00.80) to edge 16-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh (4:01.72) in the fifth heat. Germany’s Isabel Gose was the next
