Summer McIntosh held off of 400m freestyle podium, Titmus sets new world record

Summer McIntosh finished just off the podium in her first final at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

The 16-year-old Canadian swimmer was fourth in the final of the women's 400-metre freestyle on Sunday which was won by newly-minted world record holder Ariarne Titmus of Australia.

Titmus touched the wall in three minutes 55.38 seconds, eclipsing the mark of 3:56.08 set by McIntosh at Canadian trials in March.

"It wasn't something [breaking the record] that I had my mind on for this meet," Titmus said. "I just wanted to come here and try and swim the way I know I'm capable of. I knew the only way to win, I believed, was to try to take it out [fast] and whoever had as much fight left at the end was going to win it."

American Katie Ledecky took silver in a time of 3:58.73, and New Zealand's Erika Fairweather finished with bronze in 3:59.59.

McIntosh, of Toronto, swam to a time of 3:59.94, nearly three seconds off her former world-record time.

Ledecky, one of the greatest freestylers in history, sounded content with her race and now looks to the 800 and 1,500 where she is almost unbeatable. She said the record seemed inevitable.

"I think you could see a world record coming," she said. "Once a couple of people do something more people start doing it. It's been a very fast year of swimming and it was predictable that it will be a really fast field."

Ledecky has almost never gone home from a race in the world championships or Olympics with less than a gold or silver medal. She finished fifth in the 200 meters at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, her only other sub-gold or silver performance.

She entered these worlds with 32 gold or silver medals in the Olympics and worlds.

In other action on Sunday, Maggie Mac Neil,