BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom — Canadian swimming star Summer McIntosh has added to her growing medal haul.
On the back of her success at the world aquatics championships last month, the 15-year-old from Toronto won Canada’s first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, winning the 400m individual medley in stunning fashion on Friday.
McIntosh, who became the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a single championship in Budapest, bettered both the Games and her own national record, touching the wall in four minutes, 29.01 seconds.
Australia’s Kia Melverton finished 7.77 seconds behind McIntosh for the silver medal.
McIntosh is the third-fastest performer in the event’s history and is closing in on the world record of 4:26.36 set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosu at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“I was excited to get my time off (from) worlds and see what I could do to get better,” McIntosh said. “I worked on a lot of things in training to be able to do my 400 IM better than (at) worlds because I had so much room for improvement and I still do.”
“Overall I’m happy with how I swam the race and how I felt about it.”
Katie Shanahan of Scotland was third in 4:39.37.
Ella Jansen of Burlington, Ont., was fifth and Tessa Sipluccia of Oakville, Ont., was eighth.
McIntosh won four medals at the Worlds.
In the medley 4x100m freestyle relay, the Canadian quartet of Joshua Liendo, Javier Acevedo, Maggie McNeil and Rebecca Smith won bronze with a time of 3:24.86.
“It was a tough race,” Liendo said. “But we fought hard and it was really exciting to be a part of that. It was everyone’s second swim of the night and I thought we did great.”
According to Smith, she and McNeal only had 10-15 minutes between the relay race and the semifinal of the women’s 100m butterfly, which they competed in before it.
Australia won gold in a Commonwealth Games record time of 3:21.18, while England (3:22.45) took silver.
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Mac Neal, Smith and Catherine Savard qualified for the women’s 100m butterfly final, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday.
In gymnastics, Canada won silver in the men’s team event for the second time in a row at the Commonwealth Games.
The team consisting of Felix Dolchi, Mathis Jalbert, Chris Kaji, Jason Rampersad and Kenji Tammane totaled 241.2 points, narrowly beating bronze medalist Cyprus (239.65).
England ran away with the gold with 254.55 points.
Earlier, Kelsey Mitchell, Sara Orban and Laurian Genest took home Canada’s first medal when they competed for silver in the women’s sprint track cycling team event.
“We wanted that gold, but I just went in thinking I had nothing to lose and I just gave my 100 percent,” Orban said. “Stepping on that podium doesn’t even feel real.
“I’m so proud of both of them. We executed it well and achieved our goal of getting on the podium and just standing next to them made it that much more special.”
New Zealand won the gold medal race with a time of 47.425 seconds, ahead of the Canadians who finished in 48.001.
The men’s sprint team of Ryan Dodik, Tyler Roark and Nick Whams moved into the bronze medal final, also against New Zealand, missing out on the podium, finishing 0.717 seconds behind the Kiwis in fourth.
Canada’s men’s 3×3 basketball team went 1-1 on opening day, defeating Kenya 15-12 before falling on a 21-20 decision to Scotland.
Bikramjit Gill led Canada with five points and 10 rebounds against Kenya.
Gill said playing in the Commonwealth 3×3 basketball debut was “phenomenal”.
“A lot of people overlook it, but sometimes you just have to live in the moment, absorb what’s going on, see people and see how excited they are,” Gill said. “The audience has given us a lot of love so I’m just happy to be here to be honest.”
Canada’s goal at the Games is to finish in the top 3 in the overall medal standings. Team Canada won 82 medals at the games four years ago in Australia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 29, 2022.
The Canadian Press
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