Weekend Roundup: Two world records for Summer McIntosh, second career PGA win for Corey Conners
If the world didn’t know the name Summer McIntosh, they certainly do now after her absolute clinic at the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials. We’ve got the details of her world record exploits. Plus, Corey Conners apparently likes winning in San Antonio the week before the Masters and several Canadian judokas strike the podium in their world championship warmup.
Read on for more on what you might have missed this weekend:
Swimming: Summer McIntosh to lead Canada into World Aquatics Championships
Swimming phenom Summer McIntosh had a virtuoso performance at the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Toronto. The 16-year-old broke two world records and three junior world records as she won five events. She started by setting the world record in the women’s 400m freestyle on Tuesday. Her time of 3:56.08 took 0.32 off the previous mark set by last May by Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
On Saturday, McIntosh took down a seven-year-old world record in the women’s 400m individual medley. Her winning time of 4:25.87 was almost half a second faster than the mark Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu set in winning Olympic gold at Rio 2016. McIntosh is the first swimmer — male or female — to ever set long course world records in both the 400m freestyle and 400m IM. She is the first Canadian since Alex Baumann in 1984 to hold two long course world records at the same time and the first Canadian woman to achieve that feat since Elaine Tanner in 1967.
READ: McIntosh breaks second world record in five-days at Canadian Swimming Trials
In between, McIntosh won two other events. She became the fourth-fastest swimmer ever in the women’s 200m individual medley (2:06.89) as she set Canadian and world junior records. She followed up with the fastest time this year in the women’s 200m butterfly (2:04.70), again a Canadian and world junior record. She ended the Trials on Sunday with another Canadian and world junior record in the 200m freestyle (1:53.91).
McIntosh will be joined by 30 other swimmers on the Canadian team for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July. World medallist Joshua Liendo will lead the men’s team after breaking Canadian records in the 50m and 100m butterfly events. He was also victorious in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil is the fastest in the world so far this year in the women’s 100m butterfly and also set a personal best in winning the 50m freestyle. Four-time Olympic medallist Kylie Masse won the women’s 50m and 200m backstroke after being upset by Ingrid Wilm in the 100m backstroke.
Another upstart to keep an eye on is 18-year-old Ilya Kharun. He nearly broke his own national record in the men’s 200m butterfly, missing it by a quarter of a second.
Following the announcement of the world championship team on Sunday night, Canada’s swimming squad for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games will be revealed later this week.
Golf: Conners earns second PGA Tour win in familiar place
With a final score of -15, Corey Conners defeated American Sam Stevens by one stroke to capture his second PGA Tour title. He did it at the Valero Texas Open, which was also the site of his first career victory in 2019.
Shooting a final round 68, Conners moved up one spot on Sunday to earn the $1.6 million dollar payout. It is his first top-10 finish of the year and will send him into the year’s first major — The Masters — on a high. Conners is one of four Canadians set to tee off in Augusta, Georgia. He’ll be joined by Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Svensson, and Mike Weir, who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of becoming the first Canadian man to win a major tournament.
In a message to Golf Canada, Conners says “It’s pretty sweet, four years later, to get another victory here.” He moves up 12 spots to number 28 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Judo: Four medals at Antalya Grand Slam 🥋
Team Canada had a successful weekend at the IJF Grand Slam in Antalya, Turkey — the last major competition before the IJF World Championships in early May.
READ: One silver, three bronze medals in Antalya for Team Canada judokas
Christa Deguchi got it started with a silver medal in the women’s 57kg category. She fought impeccably before running up against a tough opponent in the final: 2016 Olympic champion and reigning world champion Rafaela Silva of Brazil. This is Deguchi’s second straight second-place finish in a Grand Slam tournament. She and fellow Canadian Jessica Klimkait now sit second and third, respectively, in the world rankings behind Silva.
Three other Canadians won bronze medals. In the women’s 63kg event, Olympic and world medallist Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard was defeated by the eventual gold medallist, Ketleyn Quadros of Brazil, in the semifinals. She finished her day with a win in the bronze medal bout against Lubjana Piovesana of Austria. Beauchemin-Pinard is ranked second in the world in her weight class.
After a loss in the final of his men’s 81kg pool, François Gauthier-Drapeau made his way through the repechage to claim a bronze medal. World silver medallist Kyle Reyes had the same fate in the men’s 100kg event.
Weightlifting: Multiple Canadian medals at Pan Am Championships
At the 2023 Pan American Championships, Maude Charron won gold in the women’s 59kg category. She lifted a total of 225kg, which put her five kilos clear of the runner-up. This was Charron’s second international competition in her new weight class. She dropped down from the 64kg in which she won gold at Tokyo 2020 after that weight class was removed from the Olympic program for Paris 2024.
Alex Bellemarre won the overall bronze medal in the men’s 89kg event. In non-Olympic weight classes, Josée Gallant won the overall silver medal in the women’s 55kg event after placing second in the snatch and third in clean and jerk. Nadia Yangui won the bronze medal in the women’s 64kg event. Samuel Guertin was third overall in the men’s 81kg event.
