Summer McIntosh wins bronze, sets record in women's 200m freestyle swimming final at world aquatics
Canadian, 16, sets new world junior record in 1:53.65
Canada's Summer McIntosh swam to a bronze medal in the women's 200-metre freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, on Wednesday.
The Toronto native, 16, finished in a world junior record time of one minute 53.65 seconds.
"It's always nice to get on the podium again at my second world championships,'' McIntosh said.
''Overall, I was really happy with that race and the 200 free has always been a really fun race to go head-to-head. It was super close, so just learning from that and I'll learn from my splits and things to work on moving forward.''
Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan set a new world record time of 1:52.85 on the way to gold, while fellow Australian Ariarne Titmus took silver in 1:53.01.
McIntosh also secured a spot in Thursday's women's 200 butterfly final, swimming to a time of 2:06.85 in Wednesday's semifinals.
WATCH | McIntosh swims to bronze:
O'Callaghan broke the performance-enhancing bodysuit era mark of 1:52.98 set by Italian Federica Pellegrini at the 2009 worlds in Rome.
"I'm absolutely excited. I was not expecting that at all entering this. I just wanted to have fun and just give it a crack. I was really nervous leading up to this because I didn't know how I was going to race," O'Callaghan told Channel Nine.
"The lead-up to this has been so up and down like a roller-coaster, just with injury and then coming off trials and all that. Just to do that, I just think is incredible and I'm excited for what else I can do."
WATCH | McIntosh: 'I knew it was going to be a tough race, close'
Kharun sets Canadian record
Montreal's Ilya Kharun finished fourth in the men's 200 butterfly final, breaking his own Canadian record with a time of 1:53.82.
French swimmer Leon Marchand took gold in 1:52.43, while Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski won silver (1:53.62) and Japan's Tomoru Honda claimed bronze (1:53.66). Marchand earlier posted a world record in the 400 individual medley at these championships.
''It could have been better, the finish was a bit long,'' Kharun said.
''I tried to go out smooth in the first 50 and blast the last 50. I certainly dropped a lot of time which is what I wanted but I definitely wanted a podium finish. I'll have to get it next year [at the Olympics].''
In the women's 50 backstroke semis, Canadians Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm advanced to the final after competing in the same heat.
Masse, of LaSalle, Ont., finished second in with a time of 27.49, while Calgary's Wilm finished fourth in 27.71.
WATCH | Masse, Wilm advance to final:
China's Qin Haiyang also added another gold to his tally at the meet in the men's 50 breaststroke after securing the title over 100 earlier in the week.
The 24-year-old had gone quickest with a new Asian best of 26.20 seconds in the preliminary event and came home in 26.29 in the final to edge American Nic Fink who was 30-100ths slower. China's Sun Jiajun rounded off the podium in 26.79.
Britain's triple Olympic champion Adam Peaty, who holds the world record of 25.95 in the event, skipped the meet for mental health reasons after also missing the previous edition with a fractured bone in his foot.
Live coverage of Wednesday's swimming finals continues on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app, and on CBC Gem.
With files from Reuters
