Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. World Championships, Day 1 Prelims: Katie Ledecky Leads 400 Free, but Showdown Is Set Katie Ledecky gave no quarter in prelims of the women’s 400 freestyle Sunday morning. But Sunday night’s first premier final of the World Aquatics Championships was nonetheless set. Ledecky outpaced Summer McIntosh in the fourth and final heat of morning prelims at Marine Messe Hall in Fukuoka, and her time was better than Ariarne Titmus in the heat prior. But with sub-4 minutes almost certainly needed to win and a World Record squarely in play, the battle between the sport’s top distance stars remains as it ever was: Up for grabs, and sensationally so. Ledecky won the fourth heat of four in 4:00.80. She won this event in Budapest last year in a competition record 3:58.15, a time that is certainly living on borrowed time. Second in the last heat and third overall was McIntosh, who took the World Record in March at 3:56.08. She was behind Ledecky the whole way in 4:01.72. In between was Titmus, the reigning Olympic champ, in 4:01.39. Those three might be in a class by themselves, but they could have company at least for part of the night’s final. Bella Sims of the U.S. went out fast in the morning and held on for the seventh seed in 4:04.25. Li Binjie, the Olympic bronze medalist, also got off to a fast start but faded to eighth in 4:04.98. It was a ridiculously fast cut-off time for the final eight and bested ninth-place Anja Kesely by more than two seconds. Titmus won the Oceania All-Stars heat in Heat 3. She finished first, with New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather third (4:03.07) and Lani Pallister (4:03.49) fourth. They landed fifth and sixth overall. Isabel Gose of Germany snuck in between, .05 up on Fairweather to finish as the fourth seed for finals in 4:03.02. That lowers the German record of 4:03.21 Gose had set at the Tokyo Olympics. Spare a thought for Valentine Dumont of Belgium, who won the third heat in 4:10.09. That was more than five seconds back of earning a second swim, in 15th.
I am so looking forward to the finals of this event I might have to subscribe to watch it live. Fantastic splits by Katie Ledecky, of course, and I look forward to what she brings to the final!