Summer season McIntosh Scares World Report in 200 Butterfly; Units Canadian Report with No. 2 Efficiency in Historical past
In late 2009, simply earlier than the game’s ban on supersuits went into impact, Liu Zige packaged a surprising efficiency within the 200-meter butterfly. Racing on the Chinese language Nationwide Video games, the 2008 Olympic champion registered a time of two:01.81, an effort that sliced 1.60 seconds from the earlier world document of Australian Jessicah Schipper. The consensus response to Liu’s effort went slightly like this: “She went what?”
For greater than a decade, Liu’s document has been largely deemed untouchable, however Canadian Summer season McIntosh has altered that narrative.
On Night time 4 of the Canadian Trials for this summer season’s World Championships in Singapore, McIntosh gave Liu’s world document a scare earlier than successful the 200 fly in 2:02.26, the second-fastest time in historical past. McIntosh’s victory marked her fourth Canadian document in as many nights in British Columbia.
Earlier than her newest efficiency, McIntosh’s private finest sat at 2:03.03, the mark she delivered en path to the gold medal within the 200 fly finally summer season’s Olympic Video games in Paris. Throughout that race, McIntosh loved a .81 margin over American Regan Smith, who earned the silver medal in 2:03.84.
McIntosh is within the midst of manufacturing one of many best meets in historical past. Already, she has established world data within the 400 freestyle (3:54.18) and 200 particular person medley (2:05.70), and has posted the third-fastest time within the 800 freestyle (8:05.07). She stays slated to contest the 400 IM, during which she owns the world document, and the 200 freestyle, the place she might threaten the worldwide commonplace of 1:52.23, held by Aussie Ariarne Titmus.
“My contact was not my finest, so I’m slightly mad at myself for that,” McIntosh mentioned in her post-race interview. “However total, I’m pleased with the time and felt actually robust. I wish to get nearer and nearer to that world document. That is the world document I would like essentially the most. It’s the toughest one to get in my view. It’s one thing I hope I can get within the close to future.”
Here’s a comparability of the splits between Liu and McIntosh:
Liu: 27.19, 58.08 (30.89), 1:30.20 (32.12), 2:01.81 (31.61)McIntosh: 27.28, 58.58 (31.30), 1:30.19 (31.61), 2:02.26 (32.07)
Whereas McIntosh was barely behind world-record tempo throughout the first half of the race, an enormous third lap of 31.61 put {the teenager} .01 forward of Liu’s tempo on the 150-meter mark. However down the stretch, McIntosh was unable to maintain up with Liu’s 2009 velocity, which was closely fueled by the polyurethane know-how of the time.
