Summer McIntosh came within a whisker of breaking a long-standing world record, while Léon Marchand and David Popovici also claimed gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Thursday.
The Canadian 18-year-old won the 200 metres butterfly in 2:01.99, just 0.18 seconds shy of Liu Zige's 2009 world record of 2:01.81, the last surviving mark from the supersuit era. McIntosh, who shouted an expletive upon seeing the time, said: 'I know that I messed up the last 15 metres of my race. Overall, happy with the time and a PB, but I didn’t reach my goal tonight.'
Marchand, dubbed the 'French Phelps', won the 200 metres individual medley in 1:53.68, nearly a second slower than his world record of 1:52.69 set in the semi-finals. The Frenchman said: 'I felt so excited yesterday that I couldn’t sleep. So I think I lost a lot of energy yesterday night, but it was my goal to break the record, so I was really happy with it.'
Popovici won the men's 100 metres freestyle in 46.51 seconds, coming close to Pan Zhanle's world record of 46.40. The Romanian, who also won the 200 metres freestyle earlier in the meet, said: 'I just feel very relieved that this huge pressure of being afraid of winning or losing is off me.'
In other finals, Katharine Berkoff won the women's 50 metres backstroke for the United States, while Australia's women clinched the 4x200 metres freestyle relay gold. Mollie O'Callaghan, who anchored the relay, tied Ian Thorpe as Australia's most successful swimmer at world championships with 11 gold medals.
