Teen swimming sensation Summer McIntosh added another first place result to her resume Friday, winning the women’s 100-metre butterfly at the Canadian Swimming Open.
The 17-year-old from Toronto swam a personal best 57.19 seconds at the Pan Am Sports Centre.
She touched 0.05 seconds ahead of defending Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont.
Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivieres, Que., came third with a time of 58.05.
McIntosh said she has a lot of respect for Mac Neil, both in and out of the pool.
“It’s so awesome to see how well she’s done,” McIntosh said. “Since getting that gold medal at Tokyo, I’ve always been so inspired by her and she’s someone that I’ve always looked up to.”
McIntosh is one of Canada’s top medal hopes for this summer’s Paris Olympics, and posted the world’s fastest 200-metre free time of the year on Wednesday, swimming the race in 1:54.21.
“Going into this meet I wanted to focus on more sprinty events and kind of polish up my details. Overall I’m pretty happy,” she said. “I’m really focused tunnel vision on the main goal which is Paris right now.”
The Canadian Swimming Open continues through Saturday. The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic trials are set for May 13-19 in Toronto.