Canadian teenager McIntosh smashes 200m medley world record
The 18-year-old eclipsed Hungarian Katinka Hosszu's mark of 2:06.12 set at the 2015 World Championships to become the first woman to duck under 2:06.
It was triple Olympic gold medallist McIntosh's second world record of the meet following her 400m freestyle world record on Saturday.
The gifted Canadian teenager had also impressed during Sunday's victory in the 800m freestyle, clocking the third-fastest time in history in an event not typically regarded as her strongest.
Yet McIntosh showed no signs of fatigue with another dazzling performance to delight the crowd in British Columbia on Monday.
"Overall really happy with that time and always just trying to keep pushing forward," McIntosh said after her record-breaking display.
"It's awesome. 200IM is my main race out of my top five or six races where I really have to execute perfectly.
"There's no room for mistakes and it's kind of a sprint event for me, so I'm really happy with that. It gives me a lot of confidence heading into Singapore," added McIntosh, referring to next month's World Championships.
Asked how she had prepared herself for Monday's effort after a gruelling weekend, she added: "Just recovering, sleeping as much as possible and eating a lot.
"And also mentally calming myself down and taking it one race at a time.
"I've had a lot of practice at that these past few years."
McIntosh laid the foundations for her assault on the record with flawless opening sections in the butterfly and backstroke before an improved breaststroke -- her weakest discipline -- left her on world record pace.
From there she turned on the after-burners in the closing freestyle to obliterate Hosszu's record.
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Canadian teenager McIntosh smashes 200m medley world record
The 18-year-old eclipsed Hungarian Katinka Hosszu's mark of 2:06.12 set at the 2015 World Championships to become the first woman to duck under 2:06. It was triple Olympic gold medallist McIntosh's second world record of the meet following her 400m freestyle world record on Saturday. The gifted Canadian teenager had also impressed during Sunday's victory in the 800m freestyle, clocking the third-fastest time in history in an event not typically regarded as her strongest. Yet McIntosh showed no signs of fatigue with another dazzling performance to delight the crowd in British Columbia on Monday. "Overall really happy with that time and always just trying to keep pushing forward," McIntosh said after her record-breaking display. "It's awesome. 200IM is my main race out of my top five or six races where I really have to execute perfectly. "There's no room for mistakes and it's kind of a sprint event for me, so I'm really happy with that. It gives me a lot of confidence heading into Singapore," added McIntosh, referring to next month's World Championships. Asked how she had prepared herself for Monday's effort after a gruelling weekend, she added: "Just recovering, sleeping as much as possible and eating a lot. "And also mentally calming myself down and taking it one race at a time. "I've had a lot of practice at that these past few years." McIntosh laid the foundations for her assault on the record with flawless opening sections in the butterfly and backstroke before an improved breaststroke -- her weakest discipline -- left her on world record pace. From there she turned on the after-burners in the closing freestyle to obliterate Hosszu's record.
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It goes without saying that these adolescents continue to go to school beyond the compulsory age, eventually graduating. Many continue afterwards and go on to university. In an attempt to encourage young Roma to go to university, a law in Romania provides for a percentage of places reserved for them, without having to pass any selection. Today, they are often not awarded because no candidates apply. The Chess for Change project is slowly changing the approach of the most vulnerable communities towards education. Just as the interchange between Roma children and their Romanian peers, parents included, now takes place without barriers and without prejudice. The project started in 2019 with 60,000 euro from European Cohesion Policy funding. The total cost of the project was 70,000 euro. Every year, Stea is looking for new patrons so as not to be forced to discontinue the programme. Off to Barcelona in the summer? Make sure to pick a proper travel agent. Taking a trip to London? Watch out for fake car rentals. The risk of being scammed at popular tourism spots jumps by 28% during peak seasons. Some examples are fake destination photos, broken confirmation links and bogus deals. Travel agencies seem to be the places most at risk, with scam rates "four times higher than the global average," according to a new report by the Mastercard Economics Institute. Fraudsters often establish fake tourism companies, attracting customers with juicy offers for excursions, guided tours or supposedly exclusive experiences, while offering unusually low prices. Once the transaction is processed, these tours either never take place or differ entirely from expectations. The report compared around twenty different cities to establish where the risk is highest. In general, tourists reported the lowest travel-related frauds in San Francisco, Dublin, Seoul, Budapest and Edinburgh, while the highest rates were reported in Cancun, Hanoi, Dhaka and Bangkok. So, how are tourists most likely to fall into a trap in these places? Travel-agency related frauds are the most likely in Hong Kong (70%), Delhi (64%), Barcelona (64%) and Cancun (48%). Taxi and car rentals aren't immune either: Tourists may pay for a service that never materialises after booking, or overpay due to hidden fees, inflated prices or rigged taximeters. Jakarta (66%) has the highest taxi fraud rate across all cities analysed, followed by Bangkok (48%), Istanbul (39%) and London (34%). Food scams also pose problems, such as meals that never arrive, or being overcharged at a restaurant through high service fees. That is particularly true in American cities like LA and New York, where food scams represent respectively 75% and 63% of the total. At the same time, in fraudsters in the accommodation sector may use holiday rental platforms or travel websites to create fake listings and lead tourists to book non-existent properties, or ones that greatly differ from the descriptions advertised. Tourists headed to Phuket in Thailand and Antalya in Turkey should be particularly wary, as accommodation scam rates there represent 39% and 35% of the total, respectively. Looking on the bright side, booking flights and trains remains relatively safe across all surveyed cities, with scam rates generally staying below 10%. However, travellers are at risk of fraud well before they leave home. An analysis of aggregate transaction data shows that in 2024, fraud linked to early trip planning rose by over 12% compared to the previous year. "Fake travel agency websites and excursions that closely resemble genuine services can make it harder for consumers to spot red flags", Mastercard's Executive VP Services Europe Michele Centenaro tells Euronews. He adds that the company aims to eliminate manual card entry by 2030 to boost security: "Digital wallets, protected by tokenisation and advanced AI-driven fraud prevention tools are improving consumer protection".
