Summer McIntosh Blasts World’s Fastest 200 Freestyle at Canadian Open
One month out from Canada’s Olympic Trials, many of the country’s top swimmers are racing this weekend in Toronto, and to no one’s surprise, the star of night one of the Canadian Swimming Open was the swimmer who has become the country’s brightest star and on the short list of the world’s top performers over the last two years.
Summer McIntosh has already won four individual world titles, and she owns the world record in the 400 IM after briefly holding the global standard in the 400 freestyle last season. Last year, she won World Championships bronze in the 200 free in a Canadian-record time of 1:53.65, and in Toronto, she dominated the domestic field with a time of 1:54.21, less than six tenths shy of her best mark.
With the effort, McIntosh became the top swimmer in the world this year, beating out the 1:54.76 posted by Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan, the world champion and world-record holder in the event, last month. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey is the only other woman to break 1:55, having gone 1:54.89 on the way to a world title at the Doha World Championships in February. McIntosh’s previous season best prior to the race was 1:55.41.
It has already been a strong start to the year for McIntosh, who handed Katie Ledecky her first defeat in the 800 free in 13 years at a Sectionals meet in Orlando, becoming the second-fastest swimmer ever in the 16-lap race. The 17-year-old is poised to chase a huge performance at the Paris Olympics.
Notably, the field of Canadian women’s 200 freestylers behind McIntosh looks strong. Mary-Sophie Harvey swam a time of 1:56.76 to take second, surpassing her previous best time of 1:57.06, while Julie Brousseau (1:58.40), Ella Jansen (1:58.88), Emma O’Croinin (1:59.48) and Penny Oleksiak (1:59.75) were all under 2:00.
McIntosh returned later in the evening to swim the 100 backstroke, and she was part of an extraordinarily close finish. Maggie Mac Neil, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 100 butterfly, got the win in 59.93, three hundredths ahead of McIntosh (59.96) while Ingrid Wilm was one hundredth further back (59.97). Wilm won bronze in the 50 back and 100 back at the February World Championships.
After two finals in the session, McIntosh sat out the 200 fly, one of the races in which she has won world title the last two years. In her absence, Mabel Zavaros won in 2:11.88 ahead of Sofia Sartori (2:12.81), and in the women’s 1500 free, Laila Oravsky was the winner in 17:10.36.
On the men’s side, Finlay Knox competed for the first time since winning a surprise world title in the 200 IM earlier this year. Knox won the 200 IM in 1:58.39, with Lorne Wigginton less than a half-second back (1:58.84), while Raben Dommann edged veteran Javier Acevedo in the 100 back, 55.16 to 55.38, with Blake Tierney third (55.41). Kevin Zhang topped the 200 fly (2:00.18), with the 800 free going to Timothe Barbeau (8:06.73).
In para swimming events, Angela Marina (S14) won the women’s 200 free in 2:18.00, and Nichola Bennett (S14) was the only participant in the men’s event (1:54.20). The women’s 100 back belonged to Jaime Cosgriffe (S10) in 1:02.29, and Jordan Tucker (S4) was first in the women’s 50 fly (54.78).
In the mixed 400 medley relay, the Granite Gators team of Henry Schlater, Samuel Hibbert, Claire Christie and Lila Bleakney took the win in 4:09.62.