Aug 13 (Reuters) – Canadian Summer McIntosh won the women’s 400 metres individual medley at the Pan Pacific Championships on Thursday in a championship record four minutes, 28.01 seconds, rebounding from a disappointing start to the meet a day earlier.
The three-times Olympic gold medallist, who finished a surprise second in Wednesday’s 200 freestyle final, topped the podium ahead of Australian Jenna Forrester (4:31.50) and Argentina’s Agostina Hein (4:32.54) in Irvine, California.
Her winning time was almost four seconds faster than American Elizabeth Beisel’s previous championship record of 4:31.99 set in 2014.
“Tonight I really wanted to attack the race coming off yesterday,” McIntosh said. “You kind of have to just forget about it and really just focus on the next day.”
McIntosh, who set a world record of 4:23.65 in the event in June last year, had built an unassailable lead going into the final leg as Forrester held off the rest of the field to take silver.
Her next event is the 400 freestyle on Friday with the 200 IM on Saturday.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
