Summer Mcintosh of Canada competes during the women's 400m freestyle final at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on June 18, 2022.The Associated Press
Summer McIntosh set a world junior record in the 200-metre butterfly while Kylie Masse set herself up for a Canadian-record seventh career medal Tuesday at the world aquatics championships.
The 15-year-old McIntosh, from Toronto, finished first in the 200 butterfly semi-finals in two minutes 5.79 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 2:06.29 set by Japan’s Suzuka Hasegawa in 2017.
McIntosh’s time also set a new national record, and is the fastest time in the event this year.
“‘I didn’t expect to go 2:05 tonight,” McIntosh said. “But as soon as I stepped out with all the energy and excitement from the crowd, I just fed off that. I got a lot of adrenalin and motivation and put it down tonight.”
McIntosh, who won silver in the 400-metre freestyle on Saturday, will race for her second medal at the world championships on Wednesday.
Americans Hali Flickinger (2:05.90) and Regan Smith (2:07.13) rounded out the top-three times in the semi-finals.
Masse also finished first in her 50-metre backstroke semi-final, finishing in a time of 27.22 seconds.
The native of LaSalle, Ont., won silver in the women’s 100-metre backstroke on Monday to give her six career long-course world championship medals, tied with Penny Oleksiak for most by a Canadian.
“It’s such a process and a step-by-step in order to perform, recover properly and set yourself up for the next day,” said Masse, who will race for the national record-breaking medal on Wednesday.
“I think just over the last couple of years I’ve learned how to hone in on what I need to do, minimize the distractions and minimize the energy that I’m spending on other things so that I can perform to the best of my ability the next day.”
Analia Pigree of France and Regan Smith of the U.S. tied for second in the semi-finals at 27.29 seconds, while Ingrid Wilm of Calgary ranked fourth in a personal-best 27.39.
Josh Liendo of Markham, Ont., will also swim for a medal Wednesday after qualifying forth for the final of the men’s 100-metre freestyle in 48.16 seconds.
In Tuesday’s 200-metre freestyle final, Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., tied for sixth in 1:57.24 with France’s Charlotte Bonney.
Junxuan Wang of China won the gold medal in 1:54.92, Mollie O’Callaghan of Australia was second in 1:55.22 and Muhan Tang of China third in 1:56.25.
The Canadian men’s water polo team opened with a 19-2 loss Tuesday to Spain.
Montreal’s Reuel D’Souza and Nicolas Constantin-Bicari of Repentigny, Que., scored for Canada.
The women’s team faces Columbia on Wednesday after tying 7-7 with Italy to start the championship.
Canada’s artistic swim team ranked eighth after the technical routine Tuesday. They’ll swim their preliminary free routine Wednesday.