Summer McIntosh set a world record for the second time in three days at the Canadian swimming trials on Monday with the 18-year-old eclipsing Hungarian great Katinka Hosszu’s 200m individual medley mark set 10 years ago.
Three-times Olympic champion McIntosh, who set a world record in the 400 freestyle on Saturday, touched the wall in two minutes, 05.70 seconds to knock 0.42 off Hosszu’s time from the 2015 world championships in Kazan.
“It’s been one of those records that’s always been in the back of my mind since trials two years ago,” said McIntosh, who won Olympic gold in the 200 butterfly and 200 and 400 IM at the Paris Games.
“I’ve been knocking on the door on this one. I’ve just tried to chip away, chip away at it. To finally do it, it’s kind of like ‘Wow, I’ve finally got that done.'”
McIntosh, who also won a 400 freestyle silver in Paris, has been in dominant form at Saanich Commonwealth Place, swimming the third-fastest women’s 800 freestyle in history on Sunday.
She said setting a new mark in the 200 IM was a real confidence booster heading into the world championships in Singapore in July and August.
“It’s awesome and 200 IM I think is my main race out of my top five, six races where I really have to execute perfectly,” she added. There’s no room for mistakes and it’s kind of a sprint event for me.
“Overall, I’m really happy with that and it gives me a lot of confidence heading into Singapore,” added McIntosh, who also holds the 400 IM world record after setting a time of 4:24.38 at last year’s trials.
-Aadi Nair
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