Teens Popovici and McIntosh steal limelight with golden victories as Dressel quits

BUDAPEST: After Caeleb Dressel, one of the veterans expected to dominate the World Swimming Championships, quit the competition on Wednesday, two teenagers, 17-year-old David Popovici and Summer McIntosh, 15, leapt to the top step of the podium.

Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, had “withdrawn for medical reasons. For his long-term health,” Lindsay Mintenko, the Swimming Managing Director for the USA team, told media at the start of the evening session.

“He’s just not fit to compete right now.”

Popovici then claimed victory in one of Dressel’s events, the men’s 100m freestyle, and McIntosh won the women’s 200m butterfly.

In the other individual finals, 20-year-old Frenchman Leon Marchand completed the men’s medley double in the 200m and Kylie Masse won a second Canadian gold when she took the 50m women’s backstroke.

The evening ended with another of the US team’s veteran stars, Katie Ledecky, carving a place in the record books with the winning women’s 200m relay team.

It was Ledecky’s 21st world championship medal, more than any other woman.

Australia took silver while Canada, with McIntosh collecting a second medal of the day, held on for bronze.

Dressel had already won two golds in Budapest before his last race on Tuesday morning. It was a heat of the 100m freestyle and the Olympic champion qualified only second fastest behind Popovici.

The teenager was asked after the final if he had scared off Dressel.

“I don’t think so, I think he is too big of a boy to be running away from someone like myself or frankly anyone but I hope he’s OK and I hope he’ll come back stronger.”

Popovici, who had become the first Romanian man to win a world title when he took the 200m free, became the first man to do the