Toronto's Summer McIntosh opened her race schedule at the Pan Pacific swimming championships Wednesday night with a second-place finish outdoors in the women's 200-metre freestyle in Irvine, Calif.
The 19-year-old, competing at the event for the first time, touched the wall in one minute 53.86 seconds, nearly 2-10ths behind Australia's Lani Pallister, who clocked a championship record 1:53.67. Erika Fairweather of New Zealand was third, covering four lengths of the pool at William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in 1:55.05.
"She hasn't raced the [200 free often] because she's been so busy breaking world records in all the other [events]. She's so good that you're not going to keep Summer McIntosh down," said CBC Sports analyst Byron MacDonald. "She's got the ability to get better and better. She'll learn from this."
Pallister led McIntosh by 4-100ths of a second after 50 metres but the Canadian grabbed the lead through 100 by 12-100ths. McIntosh tried to maintain the advantage through 150 metres but Pallister went ahead by 9-100ths.
"She tried to make a move on the third length but couldn't pull away. Pallister was having nothing to do with it," MacDonald said. "Summer hasn't raced [the 200] at a big meet since 2023 [and] didn't execute the way she wanted.
Summer McIntosh wins silver in women’s 200m freestyle at Pan Pacs
"In 2023, she was expected to win at the world championships, was [dealt an upset loss by Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus] and that was a learning lesson, and she got better. Now, she's going to have to learn from this one."
Before Wednesday, McIntosh hadn't raced the 200 free on the international stage since the 2023 world championships.
"Training for 200 freestyle kind of naturally worked into my training schedule on a weekly basis because I'm a 400 freestyler," she told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux this week. "It just kind of matches with events perfectly, to be honest."
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McIntosh, who opted not to race the 200 butterfly on Wednesday, will also swim the 200 individual medley, 400 free and 400 IM in Irvine.
She qualified for the 200 free final in 1:55.85 after mentioning this week she would like to stop the clock in 1:52. The retired Titmus has held the world record of 1:52.23 since the Australian Olympics trials on June 12, 2024.
Summer McIntosh has 'more to give' after silver medal finish in 200m freestyle
McIntosh holds four individual long-course (50m pool) world marks in the 200 butterfly, 200 IM, 400 free and 400 IM.
