McIntosh wins fourth gold, medley double for Marchand

At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Olympic champions Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand won gold medals in both the 400-meter individual medley and the women’s medley.

With a championship record of 4 minutes 25.78 seconds, McIntosh, a teenager, finished more than seven seconds clear of Jenna Forrester on Sunday, her fourth gold medal of the week.

The 18-year-old won gold on Saturday in the 400-meter freestyle, 200-meter butterfly, and 200-meter medley, and bronze in the 800-meter freestyle.

At her first Olympics last summer, McIntosh, who holds world records for the 200- and 400-meter medley and the 400-meter freestyle, won three gold medals and a silver.

Frenchman Marchand performed sluggishly in the 400-meter medley heats, but he came back to win gold in 4:14: 73, almost four seconds ahead of Tomoyuki Matsushita, who won silver.

The Paris Games hero, age 23, was just two seconds away from breaking the 400-meter world record he set at the 2023 World Championships when he won gold in the men’s 200-meter individual medley on Thursday.

The British team’s week was ended by Max Litchfield’s seventh place finish.

Marchand later helped France win the medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, placing sixth overall.

The GB quartet finished last in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, setting a new world record for the time of 3:49.34.

Ahmed Jaouadi, 20, won gold in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle earlier this week, adding to his 800-meter victory.

Women’s 50-meter freestyle champion Meg Harris won, while Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte held on to her 50-meter breaststroke record of 29.55.

Kliment Kolesnikov won gold in the men’s 50-meter backstroke with a time of 23: 68, breaking his previous record of three years.

Britain managed to escape a challenging week in Singapore, winning only five medals and one gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle.

Although Chris Spice, the camp’s performance director, feels that illness shouldn’t be used as an excuse.

We don’t try to dwell on that,” the company says. You can only see some of the people who might have been affected by that in the last few days, he told BBC Sport.

We’ve tried to reduce the possibility of anything moving between teams by not staying close to other teams.

However, you’re in a heated environment with close friends and family members. It’s only natural that there will be illness. That is the essence. We simply try to get on with it by putting our heads down.

Spice believes that a lot has changed in Aquatics GB’s environment and the workings of the team, which has contributed to a lackluster week.

“We had two British records last year, compared to three now.” Things aren’t bad, he continued, “under the bonnet.”

We believe our junior class has had the best crop in the last four or five years. Hopefully, those two things will come together as we approach the LA [2028 Olympic Games] and produce some results.

“We have eight people competing for their first World Championships, and we have a very young team.” There are many newcomers and a lot of learning is happening.

We left two or three medals on the table because there were opportunities that were missed this week.

Men’s 50-meter freestyle silver-bean Proud

Women’s 3m synchronized diving team Silver-Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen

Men’s 3m synchronized diving champions Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding