“All of a sudden, there is greater recovery between events for her and maybe not having two events on the same day would help her chances to increase that medal tally.”
A showdown between McIntosh and Titmus is unlikely to take place until 2027, with the latter taking time out of the pool after her successful Paris Olympic campaign.
(Left to right): Cate Campbell, Giaan Rooney, Ian Thorpe and Ariarne Titmus will lead Nine’s commentary team for the world swimming championships in Singapore from July 27 to August 3. Credit: Nine
Rooney has been broadcasting from the pool deck with Titmus in Adelaide this week, and believes the Australian will be motivated to regain her record.
“Of course it stings,” Rooney said. “Arnie’s the perfect person for that to happen to because it’s only going to drive her. Arnie will use that as fuel to fire her up. I think it’s been quite interesting for her to be sidelined this week and to see it from the other side. You can almost see her jittering on pool deck … like she wants to be out there.”
Australia topped the medal tally at the last proper longcourse world championships two years ago in Fukuoka.
While performances have been steady at this week’s Australian swimming trials, Rooney expects the USA to be particularly strong in Singapore.
“The [American swimmers] are sticking around to try and make LA 2028. All their big guns are still firing … and that could spell a bit of trouble for us.
O’Callaghan in tears as McEvoy wins
On night three of trials, Mollie O’Callaghan took out the women’s 200m freestyle final before labelling her performance “awful” and breaking down in tears.
Coming off a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, O’Callaghan’s time on Wednesday (1:54.43) was almost two seconds outside her personal best (1:52.48) from last year’s trials.
“I’ve had a rough couple of past months,” O’Callaghan told Nine’s poolside reporter Cate Campbell. “Tonight was really stressful for me. Even though it’s not the time I exactly wanted, it’s hard to come back.
“This lead-up has been the hardest thing I’ve experienced so far. I don’t think there’s been anything as hard as this coming here and trying to race and trying to [defend] my Olympic status.”
O’Callaghan was not asked to elaborate on why her year had been so difficult.
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Meanwhile, Cam McEvoy took out the 50m freestyle in a sharp time of 21.3, ahead of Kyle Chalmers (21.68) who swam a personal best, while para swimmer Ben Hance broke a world record in the men’s 50m backstroke (S14).
Sam Short also backed up his impressive victory in the 400m freestyle by taking out the 800m freestyle title in a time of 7:40.95, just over three seconds outside his personal best from 2023.
“I’m trying to be fearless,” Short said. “I know I have got more to come.”
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