Tasmania’s Ariarne Titmus has finished second, narrowly behind fellow Australian Mollie O’Callaghan, in the women’s 200m freestyle final at the Paris Olympics this morning (Tasmanian time).
It is Australia’s first 1-2 finish in an Olympic swimming final since Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett at Athens 2004.
Mollie O’Callaghan swam an Olympic record time of 1:53.27, closely followed by Titmus at 1:53.81, while Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey took the bronze medal with 1:54.55.
Ariarne Titmus paid a touching tribute to Dean Boxall shortly after the swim – who coaches both her and Mollie O’Callaghan.
“I think he should be so proud of his efforts. He is a brilliant coach. I believe the best in the world,” she told Nine.
“To manage this and have the two fastest girls in the world is a credit to him. It’s not just us, opening night he contributed to every medal that we (Australia) won as a coach.”
“I just feel very blessed to have him in our corner. If you want anyone backing you, it’s Dean and we will be forever grateful for him.”
Tasmania’s Max Giuliani finished seventh place in the men’s 200m freestyle final earlier this morning, coming just 0.85 seconds behind Romanian gold medallist David Popovici.
It was the closest margin in Olympic history for the men’s 200m freestyle.
Only 0.15 seconds separated the top four finishers as Popovici clinched victory by a mere 0.02 seconds ahead of British silver medallist Matthew Richards. American Luke Hobson was just 0.07 seconds behind, securing the bronze medal, while Duncan Scott narrowly missed out on a podium finish.
21-year-old Giuliani said he was a “bit disappointed” with the result but wasn’t complaining.
“It’s my first Games, I made the final,” he told Nine this morning.
Ariarne Titmus took home gold in Saturday’s women’s 400m freestyle, after her 200m-400m freestyle double at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
“I just look at myself and I’m so normal … I’m just the same old goofy Tassie girl living out her dream,” the 23-year-old said on Saturday night.
