Summer McIntosh emerged from a spectacular 2:01.99 World-Championship-record victory in the 200m butterfly with a wry smile on her face, a third gold in the bank but 0.18sec shy of the goal she and her coach had hooked their hopes on.

Liu Zige's 2:01.81 in a non-textile shiny suit in domestic racing home in China a couple of months before the performance-enhancing kit was banned stands to fight another day as World record - but not the best 200m butterfly there's ever been.

That is now McIntosh's 2:01.99 and though the arrow missed her mark today, an expletive fired into the bubbles beneath her breath before she hooked her arms over the lane line and covered her face with her hands. You could almost hear the fuel pouring back in through the sheer will in her head and heart after a near miss that delivered her third 200m 'fly World titles, after wins in 2022 and 2023.

The 18-year-old triple Olympic champion of Paris 2024 had composed herself by the time she confirmed that the goal was not just goal but Liu's mark. At Canadian trials last month in Victoria, she clocked 2:02.26, World Textile Best and Commonwealth Record - and so tantalisingly close to Liu's shiny bomb.

The goal was set. McIntosh emerged from the fray today to say:

“Going into tonight, my coach and I, our big goal was to break that world record. It’s what I’ve been training for. To see that I missed it by that little, and 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. Happy with the gold, happy with the win, just going to keep pushing forward.

“It’s still a PB, and PBs are hard to come by when you reach this level of the sport. Have to be happy with that. This gives me a lot of confidence with my fly, and I felt so strong throughout the entire race. Heading into the 800m tomorrow and of course the 400IM on the last day, I’m really excited for it.

“It was a night in which we were aiming for the world record, which often I don’t really focus on, but to see how close I was to breaking it and not getting it, I mean, I’m a little bit frustrated, but I can’t be too hard on myself. It’s still a personal best time, and I’m dropping time for a time that I went just over a month ago, so I have to be decently happy with it.”

PBs: hard to come by the higher you climb. Those who followed her home knew it only too well: no best times for Regan Smith (USA) or Elizabeth Dekkers (AUS) but they look silver (2:04.99) and bronze (2:06.12) and managed to fend off the 12-year-old from China making headlines around the world: Yu Zidi finished fourth a fraction from the medals yet again, after missing the podium by 0.06sec in the 200m medley last Monday, her 206.43 on 'fly truly breathtaking. Reminder: 12, 6 years beyond being placed in a swim club, 3 years beyond joining an elite program and 2 years into a regime alongside senior Olympians like Li Bingjie, including high altitude training and, in her own words "10,000m a day" .

The result

McIntosh was 0.20sec up on world-record pace at the last turn, and then returned home 0.38sec slower that Liu's finishing speed, the gap between circumstances in 2009 and 2025 a challenge a touch too far still ... but you get a sense that it won't be long now...

Smith, meanwhile, had two challenges in the pool today, 'fly silver followed, within the hour, by 50 back silver a touch adrift USA teammate Katharine Berkoff.  Said Smith:

“Doubles are never easy, but I'm grateful that it was just a 50m backstroke, not 100m or 200m. And the ready room for the 50m is really fun. There are a lot of great girls in there and I love swimming with Katharine, so they gave me the energy to do what I needed to do. And I'm just excited to hear the anthem tonight.”

Smith reached for perspective when pondering what the time on the clock meant, if anything:

“I thought that 2:04 was going to be my ceiling this year because I've been really candid about my lack of aerobic training this year and I've been dealing with a lot of the crap that we went through in Thailand, so I didn't know what I would be able to put together because sometimes my 200 fly can be a little all over the place anyway. But again, I was just thinking if I could put together a really good race, I think I'll be 2:04, so it was 2:04.99, I hit the wall and I was like, 'Okay! I will gladly take that.'”

Dekkers pointed to her own hurdles:

“While that's not the best race I've put together, I'm pretty happy with that, considering the prep, and I'm really happy right now. It was definitely tough, you know, I was on break. I was getting ready to not race for six months or so. So it was definitely a mindset shift. But at the end of the day, this wasn't an opportunity I was going to pass up. The world champs don't come around all that often, so I just got up and got ready and just put no expectations on it.”

Asked what it was like to race McIntosh, she said:

“Racing her is amazing. I think getting the opportunity to race the best every time just makes me want to push harder. Especially considering she's so young and so amazing, she really is inspiring. My reaction was ‘Oh my goodness’,  I did not think anyone would go that fast.”