Kyle Chalmers and Leon Marchand on fire, Summer McIntosh retains world title

FUKUOKA – Australia’s Kyle Chalmers set a blistering pace towards the end to win gold in the blue riband men’s 100m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships while Frenchman Leon Marchand and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh also excelled on Thursday.

Chalmers won in 47.15 seconds and Jack Alexy of the United States surprised a stacked field to take silver, 0.16sec behind the winner. Frenchman Maxime Grousset (47.42sec) grabbed bronze ahead of China’s Pan Zhanle (47.43sec).

The heavily tattooed Chalmers appeared well off the pace at the start and was seventh out of eight swimmers at the turn, but the 25-year-old recovered to power past his rivals and secure the victory in superb style.

“I feel awesome. That was the last medal that I had to have to complete the set in my career,” said Chalmers, who has bagged the Olympic, Commonwealth and short course world titles in the event during his glittering career.

Romania’s David Popovici, who boasts the world record of 46.86sec, was sixth in another disappointing run after his fourth-place finish in the 200m free this week at the Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall.

Matthew Richards’ hopes of a second gold after stunning 2022 champion Popovici in that event were also dashed, as the Briton could only manage fifth.

Marchand captured his third individual title at the championships after his world-record showing in the 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly gold, as the 21-year-old dominated the field to retain his 200m medley crown.

“I feel amazing these four days. Very big for me,” said Marchand, whose explosive performances will make him the one to watch at his home Olympics next year.

“Very happy with the time and with the win today.”

American Ryan Lochte’s world record of 1:54.00 set at the 2011 worlds in Shanghai appeared to be in danger after a good start, but Marchand dropped his pace slightly to finish with 1:54.82.

“I think that if I can get off to a faster start, that’ll do it, because in general, breaststroke and freestyle are pretty good,” he said. “In the freestyle, I lack a little power to finish but I think it’s mainly the butterfly and backstroke where I need to go a little faster.”

Duncan Scott took silver (1:55.95) and fellow Briton Tom Dean settled for bronze (1:56.07).

McIntosh earlier cruised to the women’s 200m fly title, capturing gold in a time of 2:04.06 ahead of Australian Elizabeth Dekkers (2:05.46) to win her first gold at the meet.

Regan Smith of the United States took the bronze in 2:06.58 but the race was all about 16-year-old McIntosh, who was 1.40sec ahead of her nearest rival and shattered her own world junior record en route to retaining the title she won in Budapest.

“I’m really happy with my race, 200m butterfly is definitely one of my favourite races,” she said.

“Going into tonight, I just wanted to see how hard I can push and how much I could hold on in that second half.

I was just trying to make sure that I’m having as much fun as possible and enjoying the experience and process, and trying to feed off all the energy from all the people in the stands and it makes it a really fun time.”

Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist Kaylee McKeown then won the women’s 50m backstroke crown after claiming the title over 100m earlier this week. The 22-year-old came home in 27.08sec, ahead of American Smith who went 27.11sec while Briton Lauren Cox had to settle for bronze, finishing 0.12sec behind the champion.

The Australian women’s team then obliterated their own world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay as the quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus cruised to victory in 7:37.50.

The Dolphins side set the previous mark of 7:39.29 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The US women’s team, gold medallists at five of the last six worlds in the event, finished second (7:41.38) ahead of China (7:44.40).

Australia lead the medal tally with nine golds after five days of action.

In the women’s 200m breaststroke heats, Singapore’s Letitia Sim rewrote her national record, clocking 2min 27.73sec to finish 22nd of 35 swimmers. She did not qualify for the semi-finals.

This is the fifth time since June’s Singapore National Swimming Championships that Sim has rewritten a national record. At that meet, she rewrote the 50m mark twice, the 100m once and claimed the 200m milestone with a time of 2:27.91.

She told The Straits Times: “It felt good to see improvements even at this level and I know I can be better. I know I am on the right track, so I’m going to keep working.”

National Training Centre assistant coach Gustavo Schirru added: “I believe that this meet has been a really good challenge and a good learning curve for us. I was able to identify some gaps that we... will keep working for her to keep progressing towards better times.” REUTERS, AFP