Canadian swimming star Summer McIntosh smashed another short-course world record with a dominant victory in the women's 200-metre butterfly at the world championships on Thursday.
Minutes later, Ilya Kharun won the men's 200 butterfly to give Canada its third straight multi-medal day at the event.
The 18-year-old McIntosh, from Toronto, won her race in one minute 59.32 seconds, well ahead of silver medallist Regan Smith of the United States (2:01.00). Bronze medallist Elizabeth Dekkers of Australia was almost four seconds behind McIntosh in 2:02.91.
McIntosh’s time of took down a 10-year-old standard set by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia (1:59.61). It’s the fifth career world record swim for McIntosh, who lowered the 400 freestyle mark Tuesday at the Duna Arena.
“Any time I can have the chance to hopefully get a crack at one or break one, it’s always a fun time. I just try to soak it up because they don’t come around super often,” said McIntosh, who captured her first long-course gold in the 200 butterfly at the same arena two years ago.
“I love Budapest overall. It’s an amazing place to be and swim and I love this pool as well. The crowd’s always amazing and electric, so feeding off that energy going into all my races definitely helps me get the best result.”
Kharun, a 19-year-old rising star from Montreal, won his race and set the Canadian record for the second time in one day in 1:48.24 to pick up his first career international gold medal. Alberto Razzetti of Italy was second (1:48.64) and Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski was third (1:49.26).
“I was so pumped with that, I really wanted to get first place and when I saw that No. 1 on that board I was very happy and wanted to express myself,” said Kharun, whose heat swim of 1:50.11 was a short-lived national record.
McIntosh has two gold and a bronze so far in Budapest. She is wrapping up a stellar season that included three gold and a silver at the Paris Olympics.
Kharun, who won two bronze medals in Paris, has a gold and two silver at these championships.
Thursday's results raised Canada's overall medal count to nine (three gold, two silver, four bronze).
In other results, Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivières, Que., set a Canadian record (57.19) to advance to the 100 individual medley final as third seed. American Kate Douglass, a five-time Olympic medallist and 13-time world champion, was the only faster swimmer in their heat.
“First Canadian record in seven years. I feel young again,” said the 25-year-old, who has two bronze medals so far in Budapest. “Honestly I was pretty surprised with the time. I saw Kate and I was like, ‘Oh, I must be doingsomething good.’ So I’m really excited. Now I just need to clean up a little bit of stuff and try to go a little bit faster tomorrow night.”
Sydney Pickrem also advanced, getting the eighth seed in Friday's final with a time of 58.47.
Earlier in the evening, Calgary's Ingrid Wilm and Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., advanced to the women’s 50 backstroke final.
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