By Ian Ransom
(Reuters) -It has not been a year since global swimming’s finest rocked La Defense Arena at the Paris Olympics but there is already anticipation of record-breaking thrills at the world championships in Singapore.
The meet kicks off with a bang on Sunday as Canada’s teen machine Summer McIntosh looks to claim a maiden 400 metres freestyle world title after obliterating Ariarne Titmus’s world record at Canadian trials.
Australia’s Olympic champion Titmus is skipping the action at the World Aquatics Championships Arena but American icon Katie Ledecky, the Paris bronze medallist, is entered in the 400, an event she has won four times.
With Ledecky’s days of dominating the 400 retreating in the distance, the spotlight will be McIntosh’s bid to improve on her recent world record of three minutes and 54.18 seconds.
At 18, it’s little wonder she believes her best is ahead of her.
“I can go over with my coach and see where to make improvements and really just use this as motivation and validation for my training so far,” she said of her trio of world records at Canadian trials last month.
The 400 will merely be an appetizer to the main event — when McIntosh goes head-to-head with world record holder and Olympic champion Ledecky for the 800m freestyle crown.
Iron-woman Ledecky has dominated the 800 like no other swimmer, and improbably took down her nine-year-old world record from the 2016 Rio Olympics with a swim of eight minutes and 4.12 seconds in Florida in May.
But the irrepressible McIntosh is coming hard.
McIntosh swam 8:05.07 in the 800 at Canada’s trials, the third fastest all-time behind Ledecky’s best two efforts.
Topping Ledecky in the 800 would be a watershed in global swimming history and a major blow for the American’s hopes of claiming gold at her home Olympics in LA 2028.
But Ledecky’s fighting spirit can never be discounted, while McIntosh’s comparatively heavy programme could also count against her.
McIntosh is entered in the 200 metres individual medley (IM) and 200 metres butterfly in the days before the 800 freestyle heats on Friday, with the 400m IM on the final day of the meet.
It would be a monumental achievement but she could claim five individual titles if she swims her full schedule.
That would see her join the great Michael Phelps, the only swimmer to claim five golds at a single world championships (2007).
Where the battle for middle distance supremacy highlights the women’s programme, sprinters dominate the men’s.
China’s Pan Zhanle will defend his 100 metres freestyle title from Doha, where he announced himself with a world record in the leadoff leg of the 4x100m relay.
The 20-year-old duly destroyed that mark to claim Olympic gold in 46.40 seconds in Paris, almost embarrassing the rest of the field with the 1.08-second margin of victory to Australian runner-up Kyle Chalmers.
Romanian rocket David Popovici, whose personal best of 46.71 was the world record before Pan came along, took bronze at Paris and will try to upset Pan in Singapore for a second 100m crown, three years after his first in Budapest 2022.
Popovici may be a better bet to claim his second world 200 freestyle title, having won the Olympic gold in Paris, but is up against a decent field including the British 2023 champion Matt Richards.
Leon Marchand, who lit up the Paris Olympic pool with four individual gold medals at his home Games, will swim a lighter programme, dropping the 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly from his repertoire in Singapore.
The 23-year-old, coined the “French Phelps”, will look to reclaim the 200m and 400m IM titles he relinquished by skipping last year’s event in Doha.
Already the 400 IM world record holder, Marchand is expected to take a swing at Ryan Lochte’s longstanding world mark of 1:54.00 in the 200 IM.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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