W200IM: McIntosh Leads Maple 1-3 Punch With Harvey, Alex Walsh With A Silver Lining - & Yu As Fast As The Champ Last Length 0.06 Shy Of Medal
" I’m not super happy with the time, but honestly, at a world championships, my goal is just to go as fast as I can against my competitors. Still happy with the gold and hoping to keep up my streak next time.” - Summer McIntosh
Summer McIntosh stuck skilfully, confidently, even stubbornly, to her golden trail and ambition to win a record five World titles here in Singapore with a supreme victory in the 200m medley for a second gold in as many days.
Just 24 hours after nailing her maiden 400m freestyle world title to the wall in a trophy cabinet that will soon need a new wing, the 18-year-old Torontonian showcased four lengths of all-strokes skills, smoothness, strengths and, yes, relative weaknesses, before stopping the clock at 2:06.69 for gold No2.
Yes, she swam her own race, but there were two magic moments in the play where the curtain flew back to give us a fleeting glimpse of what happens backstage when the pressure is on, the show must go on, and sop so as if it were all a walk in the park, each prop and player in the right place at the right time saying and doing just the things that keep the audience spellbound.
The first gust came when McIntosh sensed that the USA's Alex Walsh, who put up a great fight against the Olympic champion inside Singapore's World Championships Arena, was gaining with every surge on breaststroke and would soon draw level if allowed to.
McIntosh came as close to what a swimmer under pressure looks like when they bristle. It was barely tangible, yet there it was, the swim-fight equivalent of a Chef Ramsay bun fight, expletives lost in the wash.
An instant rolling up of sleeves, shoving of pots and pans, anything surplus to mission shoved in the bin or tossed out on its ear. This, she screamed, is how we make Beef Wellington!
It's about aquatic body language. The rock, the roll, the swing in her stroke as she dug and dived deeper into the place where all things flow as you wish them to because you know on levels conscious and subconscious precisely what needs to happen to get the job done to the very best of your ability right there, right now.
The second gust came about eight-to-ten metres off the wall when Walsh was still too close for comfort and McIntosh rolled with the punches of her own power with a visible turn of speed that the observer averting their gaze just at the wrong moment might have looked back a few seconds later and wondered 'how did that happen'?
From that moment on, the gold was gone and Walsh was on her way to a fine silver well earned 1.89 secs shy, on 2:08.58 - because, ultimately, no-one was a match for the triple Olympic champion with a furious finishing freestyle speed that will be tested at least once more before her campaign is done.
The battle for bronze was a belter and a question-raiser all in one. To the delight of Canadians, McIntosh was followed on to the podium by teammate Mary-Sophie Harvey, in 2:09.15. A time all the more meaningful given her experience in the past year (see quotes towards the foot of this file).
So, a 1-3 Maple punch.
Drunk on a sobering youth in intensive training, history maker Yu Zidi, the first 12-year-old at the World Championships, the first to make a final, the first to race seven rivals with an average age of almost 23, the first 12-year-old in any global waters capable pop racing the best of the best for almost a century, thundered back from seventh at the last turn to ... almost the podium.
Just 0.06sec shy she fell, in 2:09.21. At 12! Thank heavens she missed the World junior record - if only because she's not eligible, the rule book a little inconsistent on that one:
Craig Lord
McIntosh came home in 30.16. Yu, 12, was home in 30.17.
And Harvey, a fast 200-400 free swimmer, 30.86.
Harvey has tattoos, including 4s that represent the fourth-place finishes she wants to recall as reminders that they represent the soaring efforts she's put in.
“Every star is a medal I've won for Canada. And these are the world long-course ones. I'm pretty excited to add one to the mix. The position in itself (fourth) sucks, but the time and the work I've done behind it doesn't, and that's what I take pride in. It's how I'm working towards my goal. I can't control what everyone else is doing, but I can control what I'm doing, and I think I'm going in the right direction, and that's what I'm enjoying the most. Yes, I have a bunch of fourth places, but I mean, fourth is better than not making the final, so I'll take that over it and gain more experience.”
More to come on Yu - she's up in the 200 ;fly on Wednesday and the 300IM on Sunday.
She's had quite the journey so far: Yu has been training since she was 6, locally, then by 10 was in an elite program and by 11 was swimming times that would get her on podiums at most national championships in Europe. In The Times today:
Craig Lord
The Result:
Summer McIntosh, and with Alex Walsh, left, and teammate Sophie-Mary Harvey after the medals ceremony - Photo: Copyright Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
