Summer McIntosh beats Katie Ledecky to claim world title in women's 400m freestyle
18-year-old from Toronto is going for 5 gold medals this week in Singapore
For Summer McIntosh of Canada, it's one gold medal won at the swimming world championships with four to go.
McIntosh is aiming to win five gold medals in individual events at the worlds in Singapore, and the first one came Sunday in the 400-metre freestyle on the first of eight days in the pool.
Only legendary American Michael Phelps has ever won five individual medals in the worlds. He also did it at the Olympics.
The 18-year-old McIntosh, from Toronto, extended her Canadian-best career gold medal total to five at long-course worlds, and with her ninth medal overall moved into a tie with Kylie Masse and Penny Oleksiak for most ever by a Canadian.
McIntosh won but did not break her own world record, winning in three minutes 56.26 seconds. Li Bingjie of China took silver (3:58.21) with a late charge to leave American Katie Ledecky (3:58.49) with bronze.
A year ago in the Olympics, Ledecky also took bronze in the 400. McIntosh was the silver medallist with gold for Australian Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
Titmus is taking a year off and did not swim and has since lost her world record in the event to McIntosh.
Watch live coverage of every race at swimming worlds on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, with finals beginning at 7 a.m. ET each day. The full competition schedule is available here.
For Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic gold medallist, it was her 27th medal in the world championships in an astonishing career.
She won her first Olympic gold in 2012 in London, and then started adding world championship medals beginning in Barcelona in 2013.
About 25 minutes after winning the 400, McIntosh came back and qualified first in the 200 individual medley, clocking 2:07.39.
"I've never done a double like that," McIntosh said. "I think the 400 free, at past world championships and Olympics, I haven't been at my best. And I haven't been where I wanted to be. So, to finally stand in the centre of the podium is promising for the rest of the meet.
"I think I'm at my best. I'm in the best shape of my life. So now I just have to act on that and put it into all my races."
In conversation with 🇨🇦 Summer McIntosh.<br><br>Who tells me she was so in control of the 400m freestyle. And is obviously very happy to get that tough double out of the way.<br><br>Here’s our poolside chat in Singapore after another golden performance from Canada’s Summer McIntosh. <a href="https://t.co/B2gLIIKPEv">pic.twitter.com/B2gLIIKPEv</a>
—@Devin_HerouxMary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivières, Que., also qualified for Monday's final after finishing one spot behind McIntosh in 2:10.19.
Reporter Devin Heroux will be on site in Singapore speaking to Canadians following their races, and will join The Ready Room show live on YouTube every day after finals, with Brittany MacLean Campbell hosting from Toronto. The show will include Canadian highlights, athlete interviews and analysis.
McIntosh, who won three gold medals a year ago at the Paris Olympics, holds the world record in the 400 free — 3:54.18. She will face off again with Ledecky in the 800 free later in the meet, probably the most anticipated race in Singapore.
Though she holds the 400 free world record, McIntosh had failed to win gold in the event in the Olympics or previous world championships.
McIntosh will also be after gold in the 400m individual medley and the 200m butterfly.
In other Canadian results, Montreal's Ilya Kharun and Toronto's Josh Liendo failed to qualify for the men's 50m butterfly final after finishing third and sixth, respectively, in the second semifinal.
In the other early individual final Sunday, Lukas Martens of Germany won the men's 400 free in 3:42.35, edging Sam Short of Australia who was .02 behind. Bronze went to Kim Woomin of South Korea in 3:42.60.
Martens is the defending Olympic champion and also holds the world record of 3:39.96.
The other two gold medals Sunday were in the relays. The United States was the favourite in both and failed to win either.
The Australian women took gold just ahead of the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay. The Aussies clocked 3:30.60 with 3:31.04 for the US. The Netherlands took bronze in 3:33.89.
The Canadian quartet of Brooklyn Douthwright, Taylor Ruck, Sienna Angove and Ingrid Wilm didn't qualify for the final, finishing fifth in their heat with a time of 3:37.50.
On the men's side in the 4x100, Australia also took gold in 3:08.97. Italy took silver in 3:09.58 with bronze for the United States in 3:09.64.
Canada's Filip Senc–Samardzic, Josh Liendo, Antoine Sauve and Ruslan Gaziev finished last among the eight teams (3:12.89).
The shock of the first day might have been Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi, who was the seventh fastest in the women's 200m medley qualifying and will swim in the final.
Asked her reaction, she replied: "Oh, I'm in," unaware she had advanced.
"I will continue to work harder," she added. "I hope to find a breakthrough at these world championships and show my potential."
Asked for her reaction to the competition, she added. "You can feel it's quite intense. I try not to think so much and just give it my all."
The 200 IM might not even be her best event with the Chinese likely quicker in the 400 IM and the 200 butterfly.
There were three other semifinal results on Sunday.
Qin Haiyang of China took the 200 breaststroke in 58.24 with Paris Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi second in 58.62. The Italian was initially disqualified for moving on the blocks, but was later reinstated on appeal.
Gretchen Walsh of the United States and Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium tied in the 100 butterfly in 56.07, and Maxime Grousset of France took the men's 50 fly in 22.61.
Meanwhile, the United States is swimming with what appears to be a weakened team after officials acknowledged Sunday that some members of the team had come down with "acute gastroenteritis" at a training camp in Thailand prior to arriving in Singapore.
Nikki Warner, a spokeswoman for USA Swimming, would not say how many fell ill in Thailand. She cited health confidentiality rules. She said all American swimmers had traveled to Singapore.
With files from Devin Heroux, CBC Sports and The Canadian Press
