Summer Flies in Indianapolis
The 2022 FINA World Cups showcased fast swimming across three weekends in Berlin, Toronto and Indianapolis. Top athletes from around the world were chasing prize money and getting race-ready for World Short Course Champs starting in Melbourne next month. F-Teamers Summer McIntosh and Holly Barratt raced at the final leg in Indianapolis in what was a wild finish to the series.
Beata Nelson topped the women’s rankings across the 3 legs, with triple crowns in both the 200 backstroke and 200 IM. For the men, the overall winner came down to the final day which saw Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter (172.6 points) edge out Nic Fink of the United States (172.3 points). After a successful leg in Toronto including numerous Junior World Records and gold medals, our World Champion F-Teamer Summer McIntosh placed 14thoverall (104.7 points) despite only swimming two of the three legs. Her 49.9 points (10th) over the weekend in Indianapolis were equally impressive, given she didn’t swim most of her favoured events.
Summer is becoming almost unbeatable in the 200m Butterfly, off the back of her LC World Championships gold and Junior World Record (2:05.20) back in June. In Indianapolis she was equally impressive, claiming the gold (2:03.40), and falling just short of the SC Junior WR (2:02.96) and Canadian Record (2:03.20). In the 200m Freestyle, not only was it a tussle for the gold, there was a showdown between America’s Bella Sims and Summer for the Junior World Record. Siobham Haughey (1:51.19) was blistering from the start, beating Katie Ledecky (1:52.10) and Madi Wilson (1:52.23) to the wall. The Junior WR race was even closer between Summer (1:52.63) and Bella (1:52.59), with Bella lowering Kayla Sanchez’s previous mark of 1:52.85. The 800m Freestyle was another record-breaking event in Indy, with Katie Ledecky obliterating the field to lower the World Record to 7:57.42, while Summer (8:07.12) set a new Canadian Record to claim silver.
Holly Barratt narrowly missed the final in the 50m Butterfly in Indianapolis, however her aggregate points from Berlin and Toronto secured her a respectable 38th in the overall rankings.