Ariarne Titmus rival Summer McIntosh hands US legend Katie Ledecky first home 400m freestyle defeat in 11 years

For the primary time in 11 years, Katie Ledecky has misplaced a 400 metres freestyle race in an American pool. 

Canadian teenager Summer time McIntosh took the title on the US Open championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, beating 26-year-old Ledecky by practically three seconds.

McIntosh, who swims for the Sarasota Sharks membership in Florida, took the title in a meet report of three minutes 59.42 seconds, whereas Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic champion, touched subsequent in 4:02.38.

Ledecky’s final loss within the 400 free in her house nation was on the 2012 US Olympic trials, when she positioned third at age 15.

Final March, the 17-year-old McIntosh additionally snapped Ledecky’s nine-year US win streak within the 200 free.

The importance of McIntosh’s newest victory is troublesome to gauge, since swimmers are at totally different levels of their coaching cycles as they ramp up preparations for the Paris Olympics in eight months’ time.

McIntosh held the 400 free world report for 3 months earlier than it was reclaimed by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus with a profitable time of three minutes 55.38 seconds at this summer season’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Ledecky was runner-up at worlds — swimming in a time of three minutes 58.73 seconds — whereas McIntosh struggled to a fourth-place end, with New Zealand’s personal teenage star Erika Fairweather pipping her Canadian rival to say bronze.

McIntosh’s comeback victory after the frustration of Fukuoka helps arrange one other tantalising battle in Paris between three of the game’s largest stars.

Their battle within the 400 metres free on the World Championships was billed because the race of the century, however was in the end a disappointment for McIntosh.

Nevertheless, the then-16-year-old McIntosh nonetheless had a profitable championships, profitable the 200 metres butterfly and 400 metres particular person medley, and appears set to star within the pool in Paris.

Each Titmus and McIntosh will skip the Doha World Championships, set to happen in February, to give attention to the Paris Olympics beginning in late July.

Titmus, in addition to holding the world report, can be the reigning Olympic champion within the 400 free, with Ledecky taking gold within the occasion on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Video games.

AP/ABC