Pan Pacific Championships, Night Four Finals: Yu Yiting Holds Off Summer McIntosh in 200 IM, Begins Final Night With Upset
Two years ago in the Olympic final of the 200 IM, Summer McIntosh used a stunning finish to pass Americans Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh and win her third gold medal. During the first final Saturday night at Pan Pacs, McIntosh appeared on track to pull off another comeback on the freestyle leg, with Walsh again among the competitors in the lead pack. This time, though, McIntosh could not quite catch up to Yu Yiting, a 20-year-old from China who earned the biggest win of her career.
Yu owned the lead in this race for most of the first 150-meters, only briefly surrendering the top spot to Regan Smith as the 100 backstroke world-record holder shined in her signature stroke. Yu split 37.52 on the breaststroke leg to move a half-second clear of anyone else coming home while Walsh went 37.10 to move from fourth place into a strong second. Walsh surged over the first half of the freestyle leg to put herself in contention with Yu, but McIntosh had one last surge left.
The Canadian, three days shy of her 20th birthday, had by far the best freestyle leg with her 29.89, and it appeared she would had enough to hold onto a gold medal. But Yu had a slightly better finish to get to the wall two hundredths ahead, 2:07.45 to 2:07.47.
Yu had previously won World Championship bronze medals in this event in 2023 and 2024, and this gold medal joins her Asian Games titles in both medley events from 2022 among her top accomplishments. Yu already owns the top time in the world this year with her 2:06.82 from June while McIntosh became the third-quickest swimmer globally. However, she swam a time 1.77 seconds slower than her own world record of 2:05.70 from June 2025.
“I knew I had Alex beside me, and she was going to push me,” McIntosh said. “And I know Regan was going to take it out. So I used them to keep pushing me forward, and I got right to the wall, and unfortunately I didn’t get the touch.”
Walsh won bronze in 2:07.66, marking the fifth time she has earned a long course international medal in this event and good for fourth in the world in 2026. Walsh returned to the pool later in the session to place sixth in the 200 breast. After her double, Walsh explained a recently-tweaked plan for weight training and pool time, including increased mid-distance practice sessions under the guidance of Virginia associate head coach Gary Taylor.
“I think for me to be 2:08, 2:07 in the 200 IM and a pair of 2:24s (in the 200 breast), that’s definitely a win,” Walsh said. “I think that just goes to show the amount of endurance training I’ve been doing. Best time in the 400 IM a couple days ago, really happy with that, so I’m feeling good, feeling solid, and feel like this summer, the past couple months have been a good reset for me, really motivating for me, and I’m looking forward to next year.”
Smith ended up fourth in 2:09.26, a strong backstroke leg plus solid butterfly and freestyle splits not enough to overcome her weak breaststroke leg. Others under 2:10 included Australia’s Tara Kinder (2:09.43) in the championship final and American Phoebe Bacon (2:09.45) in the consolation heat.
Notably missing from this race was Douglass, who owns the second-quickest time in the world this year at 2:07.04. Douglass opted to skip the medley at this meet to race the 50 free, in which she set the world record in prelims, plus the 200 breast, where she is the reigning world champion.
