Summer McIntosh golden in 400m freestyle at World Aquatics Championships

Summer McIntosh is the world record holder in the women’s 400m freestyle–and now she is the world champion in the event.

The 18-year-old took on the women’s 400m freestyle as her first final of this edition of the World Aquatics Championships, in which she will race four other events, including the 400m IM, 200m IM, 200m butterfly and 800m free.

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Swimming in lane six, McIntosh took control of the race early and never let it go, swimming to a time of 3:56.26.

Throughout the race, it appeared it would be a battle between McIntosh, USA’s Katie Ledecky, and Australia’s Lani Pallister. However, Pallister faded in the final 100m and China’s Bingjie Li was able to put in an impressive final sprint, with the final podium results ending with McIntosh with gold, Li with silver (3:58.21), and Ledecky (3:58.49) with bronze.

Ledecky and McIntosh were both on the podium in this event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took gold, followed by McIntosh with silver, and Ledecky with bronze. McIntosh took the world record in the women’s 400m freestyle back from Titmus when she swam 3:54.18 at the Canadian Trials in June.

READ: McIntosh reclaims world record on opening weekend of Bell Canadian Swimming Trials

There was no time for celebration for McIntosh, who hopped out of the pool immediately to prepare to swim the 200m IM semifinals taking place a mere 27 minutes later. McIntosh is also the world record holder in the 200m IM.

The world championships continue in Singapore until to August 3. You can watch Team Canada compete on CBC.

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