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By Alan Baldwin
PARIS (Reuters) -Australian Ariarne Titmus defended her Olympic 400 metres freestyle title on Saturday after the world's three fastest women over the distance fought a thrilling battle in the Paris pool.
Canadian 17-year-old Summer McIntosh took the silver and Katie Ledecky of the United States the bronze. All three medallists were past or present world record holders.
The race had been compared to the epic men's 200 freestyle "Race of the Century" showdown between American Michael Phelps, Australian Ian Thorpe and Dutch giant Pieter van den Hoogenband in 2004.
"I'm just happy to get the result for myself and I feel so honoured to be a part of the race and be alongside legends like Katie," said Titmus.
"I look up to her so much as an athlete and there's certainly not a rivalry beyond the races. I really respect her as a person and I hope that I put on a good show tonight and everyone enjoyed it."
The medal was a first for teen sensation McIntosh, who finished fourth in Tokyo in 2021 as a 14-year-old and held the world record for four months last year until Titmus took it back.
Ledecky, the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and second in Tokyo, now has 11 Olympic medals -- seven of them gold.
Titmus led all the way, fighting Ledecky initially but then McIntosh over the last 100.
The Australian was inside world record pace at the first turn, and again at the 250 mark, but her final time of three minutes 57.49 seconds was well outside her own mark of 3:55.38 set in Fukuoka, Japan, last year.
McIntosh hit the wall 0.88 behind with Ledecky fading to close at 4:00.86.
"My legs are a bit tired, but I'm just relieved more than anything, I probably felt the expectation and pressure for this race more than anything in my life to be honest," said Titmus.
"I'm pretty good at handling the pressure but I've definitely felt it and Olympics is different, it's not like anything else and it's not about how fast you go," she added.
"It's about getting ahead on the wall first, so I'm really happy to have done that tonight."
(Additional reporting by Rohith Nair, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
