By: Jenny Liang

Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus has revealed she may be nearing the end of her professional swimming career after she failed to reclaim her 400m freestyle world record from 16-year-old Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh.

Titmus employed a unique tactic during her triumph at the Australian Swimming World Championship Trials on Tuesday night as the former world record holder now prepares for next month’s world championships in Japan.

The reigning Olympic gold medalist swam a sub-four-minute time in the 400m freestyle to book her spot at the championships starting on July 14.

Her time of 3:58.47 was almost four seconds ahead of second-placed Lani Pallister, but the 22-year-old believes there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“It wasn’t the best-feeling 400,but every swim I have under four minutes is a fast swim and here’s just about getting on the team and I’m glad that I ticked that off and have a couple of weeks to get things going even more now,” she told Nine’s coverage.