Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand take gold at World Championships – but miss out on new world records
Summer McIntosh came within a whisker of breaking a long-standing world record and Leon Marchand failed to improve on a new mark he set just a night earlier, but both young stars won gold medals at the world championships in Singapore on Thursday.
Romaniaโs David Popovici also flirted with a record on day five at the World Aquatics Championships Arena, the 20-year-old claiming a thrilling 100m freestyle gold to go with his 200m crown on day three.
The 200m butterfly world record of 2:01.81 set by China’s Liu Zige in 2009 is the last surviving mark from the supersuit era in women’s swimming – and McIntosh narrowly missed out on breaking it.
She stormed to her third individual gold medal of the meet in 2:01.99, the second-fastest swim of all-time and a yawning three seconds better than American silver medallist Regan Smith.
Having made the last turn under world record pace the Canadian flagged slightly coming home and shouted an expletive when she spied the clock.
โI know that I messed up the last 15 metres of my race,โ she said. โOverall, happy with the time and a PB, but I didn’t reach my goal tonight.โ
China’s 12-year-old marvel Yu Zidi finished just off the podium again having also finished fourth in the 200m individual medley won by McIntosh.
The 18-year-old might console herself in the knowledge that her bid for five individual titles remains intact, with the 400m individual medley and a hugely anticipated showdown with Katie Ledecky in the 800m freestyle still to come.
Only Michael Phelps has won five individual golds at a world championships.
Marchand, dubbed the โFrench Phelpsโ, celebrated a world record on Wednesday when he blitzed the long-standing 200m individual medley mark of Ryan Lochte with an incredible swim of 1:52.69 in the semi-finals. The 23-year-old shaved nearly a second and a half off the Americanโs benchmark, which had stood for 14 years.
With victory seemingly assured in the final the only suspense was whether Marchand might reset his world record from the previous night but he ended up nearly a second short, with a time of 1:53.68.
It was still the second fastest swim ever and led to a dominant win by 0.62 seconds ahead of American Shaine Casas and Hungarian Hubert Kos. Britainโs Duncan Scott was fourth, missing out on a medal by nearly a second.
Marchand said the record may have taken a bit out of him but he was hardly complaining.
โI felt so excited yesterday that I couldnโt sleep,โ he said. โSo I think I lost a lot of energy yesterday night, but it was my goal to break the record, so I was really happy with it.โ
Popovici then emerged the winner of a sensational men’s 100m freestyle final, clocking 46.51 to give Pan Zhanle’s world record (46.40) a big scare.
American runner-up Jack Alexy also broke the 47-second barrier (46.92), while Paris Games silver medallist Kyle Chalmers took the bronze for Australia.
At 20, 200m Olympic champion Popovici has already completed the 100-200 sweep twice at world championships, having done the double at Budapest three years ago.
The United States celebrated a fourth gold in the meet as Katharine Berkoff won the 50m backstroke in 27.08 seconds, edging compatriot Smith.
