Swimming-Canada's McIntosh aces her 'biggest' night of world championships
(Reuters) -Canadian Summer McIntosh was delighted to have made it through what she described as her toughest night at the world championships with a gold medal, saying her dominant showing on Sunday boded well for the remainder of the competition.
McIntosh claimed gold in the women's 400 metres freestyle in three minutes and 56.26 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of Chinese silver medallist Li Bingjie, with American great Katie Ledecky finishing in third place.
The three-times Olympic champion did not have much time to savour her win, however, and exited quickly to prepare for the 200 individual medley (IM) semi-finals.
Despite the tight schedule McIntosh was again in a class of her own, qualifying for the final more than a second ahead of her nearest rival.
"While preparing mentally for this world championships, I thought tonight is my biggest night of the whole meet," the 18-year-old said. "So to come out with a gold medal and a really good, strong semi-final in the 200 IM, I'm really happy.
"I've never done a double like that, and I think 400m free, at past world championships and Olympics, I haven't been at my best, and I haven't been where I wanted to be.
"To finally stand in the centre of the podium is promising for the rest of the meet... I was very relaxed, just based off how I've been feeling this past couple of months, and especially in warm-up today, I felt really strong."
McIntosh is coming into the competition on the back of a barnstorming Canadian trials last month, where she set world records in the 400 freestyle as well as the 200 IM and 400 IM.
"I'm in the best shape of my life," she said. "So now I just have to act on that and put it into all my races."
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
10 minutes ago
- The Star
Motor racing-Piastri and Norris racing like champions in F1 title battle
Formula One F1 - Belgian Grand Prix - Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium - July 27, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri and McLaren's Lando Norris in action during the race REUTERS/Manon Cruz SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) -McLaren boss Andrea Stella says teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are racing like champions and the Formula One title will probably be decided by fine margins and individual brilliance. The pair are 16 points apart in a two-horse race, with Australian Piastri leading McLaren's sixth one-two of the season in Belgium on Sunday and taking his sixth win of the campaign. Red Bull's Max Verstappen is third but 81 points behind with his hopes of a fifth successive title fast receding. There are 11 races left and the intra-team rivalry will be the major focus with McLaren set to retain the constructors' crown with ease as they now a massive 268 points clear of second-placed Ferrari. Norris won in Britain after Piastri was penalised for braking erratically behind the safety car but the Australian triumphed at Spa by slipstreaming past from second on the grid. "There is very, very little between our two drivers and this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level," Stella told reporters. "I think the difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution," added the Italian, who worked with champions at Ferrari and said Piastri and Norris were both operating at that level. At Spa, the regular grid lineup was replaced by a rolling start in wet conditions after four laps behind the safety car, with Norris finding pole position was no real advantage once the race got going. Piastri had discovered the same during the Saturday sprint, when Verstappen won from second on the grid after seizing the lead on the opening lap. "We saw in Silverstone that an issue, a sporting issue for Oscar, during the safety car restart and the consequent penalty cost him the race," said Stella. "Here we saw that, somehow related to the circuit characteristic, it would have been very difficult for Lando to keep the position, starting first at the safety car restart." Stella discounted a battery problem that appeared to be an issue initially, saying a slight anomaly had occurred on both cars and Norris should not have been any worse off. "It would have always been very difficult for Lando to keep the position starting first at the safety car restart, but at the same time I think Lando didn't help himself by not having a great gap...," he said. "So I think the execution is what is going to make the main difference." Piastri was not unhappy after qualifying second, observing that Spa was probably the best place not to have the best lap and planning his next move already. "The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race. I'd been thinking about it for a while, put it that way," said the Australian. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
The Star
40 minutes ago
- The Star
Baseball-Japan's Suzuki paved way for generation of players
Jul 27, 2025; Cooperstown, NY, USA; Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki makes his acceptance speech during the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Clark Sports Center. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images (Reuters) -Ichiro Suzuki, a remarkable hitter with dazzling speed and arm strength, not only broke stereotypes during a career played across two continents but also blazed a trail for a generation of Japanese-born players in Major League Baseball. Suzuki, who proved his abilities despite starting his MLB journey at a relatively advanced age, became the first Japanese-born player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday. Arriving from the Orix BlueWave of the Pacific League in Nippon Professional Baseball as a 27-year-old major league rookie with the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro wasted no time showing that his talent and determination translated on MLB diamonds. The slender Ichiro, with an unorthodox high leg kick to time his swing in the batter's box, turned routine ground balls into short infield singles with his speed down the line and made baserunners cautious with his strong arm in right field. Suzuki announced himself with an electric 2001 season in which he hit .350 to win the batting title with a rookie record 242 hits while swiping a league-leading 56 bases in sweeping Rookie of the Year and American League MVP honors. The batting title/stolen base double had last been achieved in 1949 by fabled trailblazer Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier as MLB's first African American player. Suzuki, who had won seven batting titles in a row and three straight Pacific League MVP awards in Japan, was just getting warmed up in the majors and quickly became a household name in Seattle. Following a strict daily practice routine and stretching regimen, Suzuki was a model of high level consistency during a 19-year MLB career that also included stops with the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins. He went on to post a record 10 consecutive seasons of at least 200 hits, reaching his zenith in 2004 when he stroked 262 hits to break an 84-year-old major league record set by George Sisler as he claimed another batting title with a .372 average. By the time he retired, Suzuki was a 10-times MLB All-Star who held the record for the most hits by a professional baseball player, including his time in Japan, with 4,367. Including his 1,278 hits for Orix in Japan, the claim has been made that with his major league hits total, Ichiro has surpassed the late Pete Rose, who is MLB's career hits leader with 4,256. "He's a guy who comes around once in a lifetime," Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who was a teammate of Suzuki's when the Japanese outfielder played with the Yankees from 2012 to 2014, once said. "No one's ever seen anybody like him. And to be quite honest, we probably won't see anybody like him again." Suzuki, who during his career smashed the perception that only Japanese pitchers were good enough to excel in MLB, not only inspired a generation of players but also prompted clubs to more aggressively scout and sign hitters from Japan. His rise to stardom while playing in MLB opened the door for fellow Japanese hitters like Hideki Matsuyama while current Los Angeles Dodgers two-way standout Shohei Ohtani has also referenced him as an inspiration. "Growing up, Ichiro was for me the way that I think some kids, some people, look at me today," Ohtani told GQ magazine in 2023. "Like I'm a different species. Larger than life. He was a superstar in Japan. He had this charisma about him." (Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
Borneo Post
40 minutes ago
- Borneo Post
Shoulder injury forces Pandelela, Yiat Qing to exit synchro event at world meet
Malaysia's Pandelela Pamg in action in this file photo taken during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. – AFP photo SINGAPORE (July 28): A left shoulder injury sustained by national diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong forced her and Lee Yiat Qing to withdraw from the women's 10-metre synchronised event at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore today. They completed two of the five dives with a total of 87 points before an announcement was made regarding their withdrawal during the preliminaries at the OCBC Aquatic Centre. Pandelela said the injury, sustained earlier this month but still manageable under physiotherapy, was triggered during the warm-up session. 'Therefore, after two dives, we decided to withdraw for safety reasons. I would like to thank you, especially those who came to the venue to support us,' she posted on Facebook. In the morning session, Nurqayyum Nazmi Mohamad Nazim and Yong Rui Jie failed to advance to the finals in the men's 3m synchronised springboard event after finishing outside the top eight. The duo finished in 21st place with 302.76 points in the 26-team preliminaries. Meanwhile, national swimmer Khiew Hoe Yean failed to advance to the semi-finals of the men's 200m freestyle event after clocking 1 minute 48.10 seconds at the World Aquatics Championships Arena. He finished fourth in Heat Three and 31st overall out of 59 swimmers. SEA Games gold medallist Phee Jinq En did not start in the women's 100m breaststroke event due to a hip and groin issue. Malaysia's national swimming head coach Eric Anderson said Jing En opted out of the event, in hopes of better preparing for the 50m breaststroke scheduled for Aug 2. 'The team flew here straight from the World University Games in Berlin, which is hardly ideal preparation. It was our main target event where we aimed to peak there,' he told Bernama when contacted. – Bernama Lee Yiat Qing pandelela rinong sports World Aquatics Championships
