O'Callaghan Has The Last Laugh In Dolphin 1-2 Leap With Titmus
"It's just great to race alongside my teammate and be on the podium with her. She deserves so much. And you know, I said before, it's incredible. This is her second medal, and it's day three. Like, come on, that's amazing" - Mollie O'Callaghan
Mollie O'Callaghan kept her powder dry for three of the four lengths of the 200m freestyle final before burning the rest off in a roaring sprint to a 1:53.27 Olympic-record victory.
The crown was going but twice-400m champion Ariarne Titmus delivered a 1-2 punch for Australia in 1:53.81, bronze to a rival who shared the podium, with Titmus in Tokyo, Siobhan Haughey, of Hong Kong, in 1:54.55.
The last time the boxing roos whacked left and right, Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett took gold and silver, in the 400m at Athens 2004.
The splits tell as tale of Haughey's need to be up with the Aussie top pace, China's Yang Junxuan challenging over in lane 2, and, ultimately, the Australians' confidence that they had it all under control and would make their move when they needed to - and not a moment too soon.
At the last turn, Haughey, Titmus and O'Callaghan turned within 0.32sec of each other but the champion in waiting was there for all to see when she broke out of streamline into stroke after a turn that swept her from ready to set, to pounce.
O'Callaghan's last lap of 27.98 was a league apart, even Titmus stunned by the surge - but not enough to be thrown, her 28.64 home-comer the only other sub-29 in the field.
In the rest of this article: The dynamic of a domestic duel, quotes, a whirlwind tour of what's contributed to Titmus and O'Callaghan being the first two women ever to swim 200m free faster than Spitz
... and a gallery of photo by Patrick B. Kraemer
