5 different countries take gold medals on a wide-open day at the swim world championships

SINGAPORE: The gold medals were spread around on Friday at the swimming world championships, thanks to the absence of stars Léon Marchand of France and Canadian Summer McIntosh from any finals on Day 6 in Singapore.
Marchand, who has already broken the world record in the 200-meter individual medley, will try to break his own 400 IM record on Sunday, the final day.
McIntosh has won three individual gold medals already and will chase two more on Saturday and Sunday as she tries for five individual golds. Only Michael Phelps has managed that at the worlds.
The biggest race of the championships might be Saturday’s 800-meter freestyle with McIntosh and American Katie Ledecky – the world-record holder – the favorites.
The Netherlands, China, Hungary and the United States picked up individual golds Friday as the meet continues to spread them around.

Britain also won its first gold and first medal in Singapore, taking the men’s 4x200 relay.
Through six days the United States and Australia top the gold-medal table with five each. The Americans have won 20 overall to 13 for Australia.
Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands powered through the last 50 meters to win the women’s 100-meter freestyle.

Steenbergen won in 52.55 seconds, with silver for Mollie O’Callaghan (52.67) of Australia and bronze to Torri Huske (52.89) of the United States.
Steenbergen won this event at the 2024 worlds in Doha, but those championships were lightly attended. This race had a tough field.

Both O’Callaghan and Huske are Olympic individual champions, but not in this event.
“It feels so crazy,” Steenbergen said. “In Doha, it was like, ‘OK, this is crazy to win.’ But in this field, I don’t know what to feel.