Summer McIntosh Caps Canadian Trials Prelims With Top Seed in 200 Freestyle; Is Another WR Assault On Horizon?
The spectacular week of Summer McIntosh at the Canadian Trials for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka will come to an end tonight. The question is what kind of exclamation point the 16-year-old star will put on the competition, as she has already set a pair of world records to go with two world junior standards.
On Sunday morning, McIntosh navigated the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle, clocking a top-seeded performance of 1:57.17. Much more will come during the evening final, as has been the case with her previous events. McIntosh was one of six women to crack the two-minute barrier during prelims, with her effort three seconds off her Canadian record of 1:54.13.
McIntosh has been nothing short of dazzling in Toronto this week, where she has set world records in the 400 freestyle and 400 individual medley, and world junior marks in the 200 individual medley and 200 butterfly. She seems poised to drop into 1:53 territory in the 200 freestyle, with the world record of 1:52.98 as the ultimate carrot. That standard has endured since 2009, when Italian Federica Pellegrini produced the time at a World Championships defined by super suits that were later outlawed.
Breaking Pellegrini’s record is a difficult ask, given how the super suits allowed athletes to finish races like never before. But McIntosh, who trains with the Sarasota Sharks under the guidance of coach Brent Arckey, is clearly a generational talent who is routinely dropping time from her personal bests.
In other prelim action on Sunday, Ilya Kharun (23.59) and Joshua Liendo (23.98) went under 24 seconds for the top seeds in the men’s 50 butterfly. The women’s 50 fly was paced by Katerin Savard in 26.59 and Patrick Hussey led the field in the men’s 200 freestyle, going 1:49.54.