Tasmanian teenager Ariarne Titmus has revealed her world championship swimming success came off the back of a bout of food poisoning.

The 16-year-old represented Australia at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest last week, winning a bronze medal with the 4 x 200m freestyle relay team.

Her performance in Budapest also ranked her fourth in the world for the 400 metres freestyle, behind record holder Katie Ledecky.

Titmus said she contracted food poisoning just days before her world championship debut, which heightened pre-race nerves.

“I didn’t really know how I was going to race because a week out from the competition I got food poisoning and I was actually vomiting the weekend before racing started,” she told ABC Hobart.

“But I was positioned next to Katie Ledecky, which was really exciting.

Despite her 400-metre result, Titmus cited her relay performance when she reeled in a Russian competitor as the highlight.

“I definitely felt really fast, I was mowing her down and it was a really really good swim,” she said.

“It was so cool to be standing up on the dais, because the dais was looking over the whole stadium you can see everything. It was really amazing, unlike any other medal ceremony I’ve ever had before.”