Summer Shines in Budapest
Over the past week the world’s best swimmers were on show at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest. F-Teamer Summer McIntosh was the talk of the pool, breaking records and racking up medals for Team Canada. South African Lara van Niekerk joined in on the action too, earning her nation’s only medal at the swimming championships.
Canadian F-Teamer Summer McIntosh grabbed the swimming world's attention with her results at the Tokyo Olympics. After her unbelievable performance at these World Championships she has become a household name at only 15 years of age. On opening night the young gun claimed silver in a personal best, to dip under the 4:00.00 barrier for the first time in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Final, making her only the third women to ever break the barrier. Her mark of 3:59.39 was just behind American Katie Ledecky who won gold with a time of 3:58.15.
In both the Semi-final and Final of the Women’s 200m Butterfly, Summer broke her own Canadian Record and Junior World Record. Third at the 100m mark in the final, Summer stormed home in 32.58 to beat challengers Hali Flickinger and Yufei Zhang to claim gold. On the same night, Summer lead team Canada off to win the bronze in the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle, breaking yet another individual Junior WR and National age record of 1:54.79 in the process, a time which would have won the individual event at the championships.
Summer’s gold rush wasn’t over there, as the teenager claimed yet another gold and World Junior Record in the Women’s 400m IM. Out in a rapid 59.94, McIntosh went to battle with American Katie Grimes who made her earn every little part of her title. Grimes’s last lap of 29.99 meant that she was closing in on Summer, however the Canadian held her nerve to clock 4:32.04 to overcome Grimes’s 4:32.67.
South African Record Holder in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke, Lara van Niekerk, went to battle in her pet event in Budapest. Fastest after the preliminaries in 29.77 and just off her national mark of 29.72 from April this year, Lara clocked sub-30 three times at the Championships. In the final she was just 0.20 seconds behind Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, earning herself a bronze and South Africa’s only medal in 29.90. Earlier in the meet Lara also featured in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke, touching 13th (1:06.75) in the semi-finals.
The UK's Freya Colbert and Portugal's Diana Duraes were also in action across multiple events in Hungary. Stay tuned to our socials as our F-Teamers now focus their attention on the European Championships, Commonwealth Games and other big international meets in the second half of 2022.