Summer Begins in Sunny S'pore

McIntosh shows red-hot form to claim first event; Martens overcomes pressure to win

- David Lee

Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh completed Part One of her quest to win five individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH), when she comfortably touched the wall first in the women's 400m freestyle final in 3min 56.26sec on July 27.

Despite being the world record holder (3:54.18), the 18-year-old had never won gold in the event at the Olympics or WCH.

But there was no stopping her after she broke free from a deadlock with Australia's Lani Pallister in the first lap at the WCH Arena, as she won the race by almost two seconds over China's Li Bingjie, before rushing off to prepare for the 200m individual medley semi-finals, in which she ended as the fastest qualifier for the July 28 final.

In what can be viewed as a warning to her competitors in the 200m butterfly, 800m freestyle and the 200m and 400m medleys, she said: "I think I'm at my best. I'm in the best shape of my life. So now I just have to act on that and put it into all my races."

This meet had been billed as a generational duel between McIntosh and Katie Ledecky, but there were surprises on the podium as Li produced a blistering final lap to overtake and beat the American legend by 0.28sec to take silver in an Asian-record 3:58.21.