Pan Pacific Swimming Championships 2026: Lani Pallister beats Summer McIntosh to win girls’s 200m freestyle last

Australian sensation Lani Pallister held off a late problem from three-time Olympic champion Summer McIntosh to win the ladies’s 200m freestyle last on the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships 2026 on Wednesday (12 August).

Competing at William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Centre in Irvene, California, Pallister received the race in 1.53.67, setting a championship report. 

“I said to Dean (Boxhall, coach) at the start of the week that racing this week at Pan Pacs is kind of the first taste of the Olympics in two years time,” Pallister instructed Nine.com.au, referring to LA28.

“I often don’t swim the 200 individually, so going 1:53 is wicked here.”

The 24-year-old took house the Pan Pacs gold shortly after clinching a quartet of gold medals within the 4x200m relay, 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle occasions on the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Part of Australia’s successful girls’s 4x200m freestyle relay staff at Paris 2024, Pallister tussled backwards and forwards with McIntosh earlier than taking the lead on the 150m-mark and ending off in fashion. 

The Canadian got here second in 1:53.86, ending 0.19 seconds behind the race winner, whereas New Zealand’s two-time Olympian Erika Fairweather earned third place in 1:55.05.

Before Wednesday, the 19-year-old McIntosh had not raced the 200m freestyle on the worldwide stage for the reason that 2023 world championships.

“It wasn’t good enough,” McIntosh stated, in keeping with Swimming World Magazine. “My touch was not good. I know I have so much more than that. It’s disappointing. I’ve got to learn from it.”

McIntosh can even compete within the 200m particular person medley, 400m freestyle and 400m particular person medley on the championships, that are happening from 12 to fifteen August.