Canada earns relay bronze at swimming worlds, McIntosh on pace for 3rd gold
The team of Kylie Masse, of LaSalle, Ont., Oliver Dawson, of Grande Prairie, Alta., Toronto's Josh Liendo and Taylor Ruck, of Kelowna, B.C., finished in three minutes 40.90 seconds, just ahead of the Netherlands.
Neutral Athletes B — a team of Russian swimmers competing under a neutral flag — won gold in a meet-record 3:37.97, with China taking silver in 3:39.99. Russia is competing under a neutral banner due to ongoing international sanctions following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
WATCH | Canada wins medley relay bronze:
Meanwhile, Canadian and Olympic champion Summer McIntosh cruised into the final of the women's 200m butterfly.
The 18-year-old Toronto native qualified second in a time of 2:06.22 behind Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers (2:06.13).
McIntosh captured gold at the 2024 Olympics, and won world titles in 2022 and 2023.
McIntosh has already won gold medals in both the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley events in Singapore. She'll swim for a third butterfly title on Thursday at 7:02 a.m. ET.
WATCH | McIntosh advances to 200m buffterfly final:
Earlier in the day, Ilya Kharun of Montreal placed fourth in the men's 200 butterfly, finishing in 1:54.34 — just 0.17 seconds off the podium after winning Olympic bronze in Paris.
It's an event he earned a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
American Luca Urlando, a breakout star, won the gold medal in 1:51.87, while Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski took the silver in 1:52.64. Australian Harrison Turner earned the bronze with a time of 1:54.17.
WATCH | Urlando wins 200m butterfly, Kharun 4th:
Canadians Ingrid Wilm and Masse both advance to the final of the women's 50m backstroke. Fellow Canadian Tristan Jankovics failed to qualify for the final of the men's 200 IM.
Marchand breaks 200IM world record
Leon Marchand broke the world record in the 200m IM, clocking 1:52.61 seconds to surpass the 1:54.00 set in 2011 by American Ryan Lochte.
The Frenchman set the mark swimming in the semifinals and, in theory, could break it again in Thursday's finals.
Marchand won four Olympic gold medals a year ago in Paris, but he's swimming only the 200 and 400 medley — and relays — in Singapore. Planning the lighter schedule in what he calls a "transition year" keeps him fresh to chase the world marks.
Marchand didn't just break the 14-year-old record, he shattered it.
"What's crazy is that it's a whole second — and it's still hard to believe," he said. "1:52 on the 200 meters — that's insane."
Marchand will swim the 400 IM on Sunday, the final day of the world championships. He holds that record of 4:02.50 set in the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.
"Today I felt really good before the race," he said. "In the water, I felt light, I was taking in a lot of water and technically everything felt clean."
Asked about swimming a lighter schedule he replied in understatement: "It was probably the right decision."
Marchand was about 1.8 seconds under the world record after 150 meters and powered home with the final freestyle leg.
Though this race did not yield a world title — that will come on Thursday in the final — it did win Marchand a check for $30,000 US.
"In the end I went out hard from the start," he said. "But I stayed super-relaxed. I didn't make many mistakes. I didn't realize I was going that fast but I gave it absolutely everything. Arms at full speed all the way to the wall. At that point I wasn't even thinking about technique anymore."
WATCH | Marchand smashes world record:
Jaouadi savours 1st world title after depression battle
Ahmed Jaouadi said he spent months battling depression following a disappointing end to 2024 but the Tunisian was all smiles after winning the 800m freestyle title in the third-fastest time ever at the world championships in Singapore.
Jaouadi had finished third in the event at the Budapest short course world championships last December and the 20-year-old was so disheartened by the result he did not return to training until March.
However, his performance at the Singapore Sports Hub proved he had no reason to doubt himself.
Jaouadi reached the wall in seven minutes, 36.88 seconds, a time that sits behind only China's Zhang Lin (7:32.12) and fellow Tunisian Ous Mellouli (7:35.27) in the all-time list.
Both Zhang and Mellouli achieved their marks in 2009 wearing high-tech "supersuits," which are now banned.
"Actually it means a lot. It's the third-best time ever," said Jaouadi.
"It feels great. Especially this season. I didn't go back to training until March. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this. After Budapest, I got into some kind of depression and I wasn't ready to go back to training at some point.
"It makes me really happy. During the last days of training, I was expecting this, and I knew that I'll go fast. But at some point, I didn't have a lot of confidence going through.
"My team, my staff, the people around me knew how to control things and helped me through this."
Jaouadi made his move after the halfway mark to beat the German pair of Sven Schwarz and Lukas Martens in the final and win his first major title.
"I just pushed my head down. I saw that as soon as I started to push down on my arms, I started to go faster than the others, I started to pull away," he added.
Jaouadi dedicated his gold medal to compatriot and Tokyo Olympics 400 freestyle champion Ahmed Hafnaoui, who was given a 21-month suspension in April by the Aquatic Sports Integrity Unit for three whereabouts failures.
"This one was for Hafnaoui," Jaouadi added.
"He's having some hard times now and I'd like to offer it for him."
Reporter Devin Heroux will be on site in Singapore speaking to Canadians following their races, and will join every day after finals, with Brittany MacLean Campbell hosting from Toronto. The show will include Canadian highlights, athlete interviews and analysis.
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