World Championships, Day Two Finals: Summer McIntosh Mines Gold in 200 IM; Silver for Alex Walsh
A little more than a month ago, during a tour de force week at the Canadian Championships, Summer McIntosh took the 200-meter individual medley into new territory. For the first time in history, a woman cracked the 2:06 barrier in the event, with McIntosh delivering a clinical performance.
On Monday night, she simply did what was necessary to grab her latest world title.
Leading fron start to finish, McIntosh capped the second night of action at the World Championships in Singapore with a gold medal in the 200 individual medley. McIntosh touched the wall in 2:06.69, which was nearly a second off her world record of 2:05.70. Nonetheless, the 18-year-old accomplished her goal – win.
“I mean, going into tonight, my goal was to get my head on the wall first, so to get that done is good,” McIntosh said. “I’m not super happy with the time, but honestly, at a World Championships, my goal is just to go as fast as I can against my competitors. Still happy with the gold and hoping to keep up my streak next time.”
McIntosh got to the finish nearly two seconds clear of American Alex Walsh, who picked up the silver medal with a mark of 2:08.58. The bronze medal went to the other Canadian in the field, as Mary-Sophie Harvey narrowly clipped Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi for third place. Harvey recorded a time of 2:09.15, with Yu going 2:09.21.
Through two days of competition, McIntosh is 40% of the way to her target of five solo crowns, with her first title secured in the 400 freestyle on Sunday. The opening day was more demanding for the Canadian, as she was asked to balance two races each of the 400 freestyle (prelims/finals) and 200 IM (prelims/semifinals). With 1000 fewer meters of racing to negotiate on Day Two, McIntosh had the opportunity to attack the 200 IM.
McIntosh immediately surged to the front of the field, splitting 26.71 on the opening butterfly leg. She followed with the fastest backstroke split and turned at the midway point of the race in 58.47, which was more than a second clear of Walsh at 59.83. While Walsh went 37.03 on the breaststroke leg, to the 38.06 of McIntosh, there was never any concern for the Canadian, who quickly reclaimed and then extended her lead on the freestyle leg. McIntosh punctuated her swim in 30.16, with Walsh splitting 31.72 for her closing 50 meters.
With gold medals secured in the 400 freestyle and 200 medley, McIntosh has ticked off three of her checkboxes for the biggest meet of the year. Still to come are entries in the 200 butterfly, 800 freestyle and 400 individual medley.
For Walsh, her appearance on the podium was the second for her family on the night. Earlier in the session, Gretchen Walsh won the gold medal in the 100 butterfly with the second-fastest time in history. Alex Walsh also earned a measure of redemption for what unfolded last summer, when she was disqualified in the Paris final. That DQ led to Walsh missing out on the bronze medal.
This time around, Walsh left no doubt about her status as one of the premier 200 IMers in the world. She was in second place at every turn and was never challenged for that position. More, her breaststroke split was the fastest in the field and served to ensure her silver medal.
“I definitely knew I wanted to be as close to (McIntosh) as possible,” Walsh said. “She’s super talented and I enjoy racing her, just because she pushes me to be better than I can be and have been, so I was really excited on the breaststroke leg. I could see her and I knew I was kind of gaining on her because breaststroke is my best stroke.”
The versatile Harvey earned her first individual medal at the World Champs with her bronze medal. Harvey benefited from a 37.21 breaststroke split and then held off a hard-charging Yu, whose 30.17 freestyle split nearly enabled her to claim bronze.
“That last leg of the race, to be honest, we were kind of far apart, so I could not really see clearly,” Harvey said. “I was just like, I just need to keep my head down and get my hands to the wall. For this time around, they came in third. So I’m really happy about it, happy to bring a medal back for Canada and step on a podium with Summer.”
