Aussie swimming icon Ariarne Titmus has had her 400m freestyle short course world record ‘obliterated’ by Chinese swim star Li Bingjie.
Bingjie produced one of the greatest swims of all time at the Chinese Swimming Championships.
She set an astonishing time of 3:51:30, beating the Australian’s record by 2.6 seconds.
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Despite having just had her record broken, Titmus actually now sits fourth on the all-time list after both US rival Katie Ledecky and Canadian Summer McIntosh both beat out her 2018 swim of 3:53.92.
The two swimmers beat Titmus’ time at the FINA Short Course World Cup the day after Bingjie had set the record.
They weren’t able to overtake Bingjie’s time, however.
We are set for one thrilling 2024 Olympics between these four swimmers with the field as close as ever.
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Titmus won’t be competing at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne later this year so she won’t have the chance to take back her record until 2023.
The Aussie star still holds the 400m long course record, a time she set by overtaking Katie Ledecky’s previous record at the Australian Championships.
As for Bingjie, she completely shocked the swimming world when she touched at 3:51, a feat no woman had ever achieved before.
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Sports reporter Laine Higgins tweeted: “Ummmm this came out of nowhere. No woman has ever touched 3:52 and Li Bingjie just went 3:51 LOW.
“The 400m is shaping up to be a three-woman race in 2024 between Li, Titmus and Ledecky.”
Former swimmer Kyle Sockwell said: “NEW WORLD RECORD! China's Li Bingjie just went 3:51.30 in the 400m freestyle and OBLITERATED the old World Record time of 3:53.92 by Ariarne Titmus.”
It comes on the same weekend that American star Katie Ledecky surpassed the 1500m short-course freestyle by a mammoth 10 seconds.
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She completed the race with a time of 15:08:24 and finished 40 seconds ahead of runner-up Beatriz Dizotti.
According to CNN, her time was so fast that she almost broke the 800m world record in the same event.
She managed a split time of 8:00.58 which was a second off the world-record pace.
Jayden Collins