Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh won her third gold medal of the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore but fell agonizingly short of breaking the 200-meter butterfly world record.
The 18-year-old McIntosh, who has already taken victories in the 400m freestyle and 200m medley, looked on course to set a record in Thursday’s race before fading in the final stages.
Her time of 2:01.99 was less than 0.2 seconds outside the current world record set by China’s Liu Zige in 2009.
“Going into tonight, my coach and I, our big goal was to break that world record,” McIntosh said in her post-race interview. “That’s really what I’ve been training for and to see that I missed it by that little – I know that I messed up the last 12, 15 meters of my race.
“Overall, I’m really happy with the time and the PB (personal best), but I didn’t reach my goal tonight. Happy with the gold, happy with the win and just going to keep pushing forward.”
American Regan Smith was second in 2:04.99, while Australian Elizabeth Dekkers completed the podium with a time of 2:06.12. China’s Yu Zidi, who is competing at these World Championships aged only 12, just missed out on a medal, finishing in 2:06.43.
McIntosh is attempting to equal Michael Phelps’ record of winning five gold medals at a single World Championships, with races in the 800m freestyle and 400m individual medley still to come.
She shot to stardom at last year’s Paris Olympics, winning three gold medals and a silver. Her latest victory in Singapore takes McIntosh’s Olympic and World Championships medal tally to 29, including 17 golds.
“It’s still a PB and PBs are hard to come by once you get to this level of the sport,” McIntosh added about her performance on Thursday.
“I have to be happy with that and this gives me a lot of confidence; my fly felt amazing and I felt so strong throughout the entire race. Heading into the 800 tomorrow and of course the 4 IM (400m individual medley) on the last day, I’m going to be really excited for it.”
French star Léon Marchand was also in action in Singapore on Thursday, winning gold in the 200m individual medley but failing to improve on the world record he had set in the semifinals a day earlier.