Wednesday afternoon at the World Aquatics World Cup had one of the moments that will be most remembered from Fukuoka 2023: another historic record was beaten, that of Federica Pellegrini in the 200 meters freestyle, and it was in a colossal race, fought to the final touch by the two favorite Australians to win the title.
At 1:52s85, Mollie O’Callaghan flew in the last 50 meters in an even race against Ariarne Titmus and managed to lower one of the records of the polyurethane mesh era by 13 hundredths. Titmus, Olympic distance champion in Tokyo 2020, won the silver one with 1:53:01 while the emerging figure Summer McIntosh broke the world junior record with 1:53:65.
For O’Callaghan, the gold medal won this Wednesday is the second individual of her career at an absolute level, after last year’s title in Budapest in the 100 meters freestyle. The 19-year-old swimmer from Queensland, two-time Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020, surpassed her compatriot Titmus, who just three days ago had set the world record in the 400 meters freestyle.
Minutes after the spectacular final at the Fukuoka pool, Pellegrini congratulated the new record holder. From her Instagram profile followed by 1.7 million fans, the Italian star showed off her belly, announcing her pregnancy with the message “We’ll take it Back”.
Pellegrini married coach Matteo Giunta in 2022 and retired from swimming in November last year. She competed in five editions of the Olympic Games and was champion in the 200-meter freestyle in Beijing 2008. She finished on the podium in the same race in seven consecutive World Championships (2005-2019) and swam in the Olympic final of that distance in five consecutive Games (2004-2020).
O’Callaghan spoke to the broadcast just after the race and confessed: “I didn’t know how I was going to compete, the road here was a roller coaster ride with my injury. It’s just incredible, I’m excited.” In addition, she praised her coach for the strategy: “Dean Boxall is an important part of what happened and how I executed the race, stuck to the plan and it went well.”
O’Callaghan’s is the third world record broken at the Fukuoka World Championship, after Arianne Titmus in 400 books and the Frenchman Leon Marchand in 400 combined, which was owned by Michael Phelps since 2008.
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