Titmus’s 400m freestyle world record is broken by McIntosh
At the Canadian Swimming Trials in Toronto on Tuesday, young Canadian Summer McIntosh broke the women’s 400 m freestyle world record with a time of 3 minutes, 56.08 seconds.
The American Katie Ledecky’s six-year-old world record of 3:56.46 set at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics was broken by the 16-year-old by Australian Ariarne Titmus in May at the Australian Championships in Adelaide.
McIntosh was the fourth-fastest competitor in the event’s history going into the meet, which served as Canada’s selection trial for the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July, after Titmus, Ledecky, and Italian Federica Pellegrini.
She had recorded 3:59.32 to come in second place to Titmus at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Great Britain, the previous year.
McIntosh finished second to Ledecky for the silver medal at the 2022 World Championships, where she became the first competitor to break the four-minute mark.
At the World Championships last year, she had also won gold in the 400-meter medley and 200-meter butterfly events.
Since Kylie Masse’s 100-meter backstroke world record at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, her record is the first long-course world record set by a Canadian.
Honestly, I didn’t think the world record was possible going into tonight, but you never know,” admitted McIntosh, who made her international debut at Tokyo 2020 when, at the age of 14, she placed fourth in the 400m free in her first Olympics.
McIntosh, who recently moved to Florida to train, claimed that competing in Canada usually makes her feel more driven. She started crying as she talked about her family.
I’ve dedicated my life to this over the last few years,” she remarked. To perform at my highest level. It was quite surprising to accomplish something of this nature. To achieve this tonight or even a few years ago was never in my dreams. My mind is blown by this.
Ella Jansen, 17, also qualified for the World Championships in the 400-meter freestyle with a second-place finish and a time of 4:08.81.
AFP
