Canadian teen Summer McIntosh breaks decade old 200m individual medley world record
Victoria, June 10 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The triple Olympic champion swimmer Summer McIntosh has shattered the world record in the 200m individual medley, rewriting Hungarian legend Katinka Hosszu’s decade-old mark.
McIntosh, who won three gold medals at the 2024 Olympic in Paris, clocked 2 minutes, 5.70 seconds on Monday at the Canadian trials for the World Championships in Singapore in July and August.
She split 57.99 on the opening 100 to be .95 ahead of the world record pace at the halfway mark, only to fall off the a bit on the breaststroke leg. McIntosh trailed Hosszu’s world record pace by .14 heading into the final 50 before racing home in 29.95 to shatter the old record.
“It’s awesome and 200m IM I think is my main race out of my top five, six races where I really have to execute perfectly,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh broke her second world record in the meet’s first three days. She demolished the 400m freestyle world record on Saturday in 3:54.18 to open the qualifiers. Then on Sunday, she swam the third-fastest 800m free in history, trailing only Katie Ledecky’s top two times.
The 18-year-old Canadian was previously the third-fastest 200m IMer in history thanks to her 2:06.56 to win Paris Olympic gold. With Monday’s time, she passed American Ariana Kukors, who swam 2:06.15 at the 2009 Worlds, and Hosszu.
“Breaststroke has always been my weakest so getting through that 50, just trying to get to the wall and knowing that I’ll be really strong in that last 50 because my freestyle has been great here so far.
“Overall I’m really happy with that time and I always just trying to keep pushing forward but I’ll have to look over my splits to see where my breaststroke was but happy with it,” McIntosh, who will swim the 200m butterfly on Tuesday, said.
McIntosh won three gold medals in 200m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 400m medley event at the Paris Games last year.
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