Not quite 'Race of the Century' but Titmus still golden

PARIS : The women's 400 metres freestyle may not quite have lived up to the hype of "Race of the Century" but still got the action in the Paris Olympic pool off to an explosive start on Saturday as Australian Ariarne Titmus powered to gold.

With a high quality field that included the world's three fastest women over the distance, who have each at one time owned the world record, all the elements were there for an Olympic thriller for the ages.

But in the end it was the Titmus show, with the defending gold medallist and world record holder leading from start to finish, coming home nearly a second ahead of silver medallist Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh and more than three seconds clear of her great rival American Katie Ledecky, who settled for bronze.

There was a heavyweight title feel to the evening as an electric La Defense Arena crackled with energy for a race that was expected to provide one of the sporting highlights of the entire Olympics.

Compared to the epic men’s "Race of the Century" at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where Australian Ian Thorpe took gold in the 200m free ahead of Dutchman Pieter Van Den Hoogenband and the United States' Michael Phelps, the race came with massive hype and expectations that proved impossible to live up to.

"I probably felt the expectation and pressure for this race more than anything in my life to be honest and I'm pretty good at handling the pressure," said Titmus, who is unbeaten over the distance since 2019. "I definitely felt it, and the Olympics is different.

"It's not like anything else and it's not about how fast you go. It's about getting a hand on the wall first."

Competing in her fourth Olympics, Ledecky had fired a warning shot in the morning heats, posting the fastest