Aussie golden girls ease through return at Paris pool

[Pelican Press 0]

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Aussie golden ****** ease through return at Paris pool

Ariarne Titmus felt sluggish, her *********** swim teammate Mollie O’Callaghan says it was tough.

The morning after big nights often are.

Titmus and O’Callaghan returned to the Paris Olympic pool on Sunday morning after briefly basking in their gold-medal triumphs on Saturday night.

The pair cruised through the heats of the women’s 200m freestyle with O’Callaghan the top qualifier for the semi-finals and Titmus third quickest.

Titmus is trying to forget the memorable: a successful defence of her Olympic 400m freestyle crown on Saturday night.

“It’s definitely that you feel a bit sluggish in the water after a big night,”she said.

“But I had a pretty good rest, just tried to forget about it (the 400) as much as I could. And the 200 is now the focus.”

Titmus is seeking to become the first swimmer to defend a 200-400 double at an Olympics, after winning both events at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

But O’Callaghan, who featured in Australia’s 4x100m freestyle triumph on Saturday night, is trying to dash that ambition.

“I’m not ranked first, so in the end the pressure is on the people who are No.1 or past Olympic champions,” she said.

“This is my first time having an individual Olympics (swim) and it’s new and fresh for me so I have just got to learn as I go.”

O’Callaghan clocked one minute 55.79 seconds in her 200m free heat with Titmus finishing in 1:56.23.

Also Sunday, Australians Max Guiliani and Thomas Neill produced strong heat swims to advance to the semi-finals in the men’s 200m freestyle.

Olympic debutant Guiliani (1:46.15) won his heat and was fifth-quickest overall while Neill (1:46.27) was ranked ninth.

But compatriots William Petric and Brendon Smith both ******* to progress to the men’s 400 individual medley final, ranked 12th and 13th respectively through the heats.

Fellow *********** Jenna Strauch missed a berth in the women’s 100m breaststroke semi-finals despite winning her heat – her time of 1:07.27 was ranked 22nd.

In the men’s 100m backstroke, Dolphins Isaac Cooper (54.21 seconds, 21st) and Brad Woodward (54.34, 25th) also couldn’t secure semi-final slots.

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