Sawt Falasteen - McIntosh powers to third gold of worlds, 12-year-old Yu fourth

McIntosh touched the wall in 2min 01.99sec, just failing to beat the world mark of 2:01.81 set by China's Liu Zige in 2009.

It was the second-fastest time in history.

American Regan Smith was second in 2:04.99, with Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers third in 2:06.12.

Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi was narrowly fourth in 2:06.43.

The dominant win kept McIntosh on course to join retired great Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to win five individual titles at a single world championships.

The 18-year-old McIntosh, the 200m butterfly Olympic champion, has already won the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley in Singapore.

"My coach and I, our big goal was to break that world record and that was what we were training for," said McIntosh.

"To see that I missed it by that little -- overall really happy with the time and PB (personal best) but I did not reach my goal tonight."

McIntosh will continue her assault on the world championships in the 800m freestyle, where she will square off against American legend Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky is a four-time Olympic gold medallist and the world record holder in the 800m freestyle but McIntosh clocked the third-fastest time ever last month.

The Canadian said her 200m butterfly performance "gives me a lot of confidence".

"Happy with the gold, happy with the win and just going to keep pushing for it," she said.

China's Yu has turned heads in Singapore with her prodigious talent.

She also qualified for the final of the 200m individual medley and again came fourth, missing out on a medal by just 0.06sec in what was not considered her strongest event.

If she had claimed bronze, she would have become the youngest medallist in the history of the world championships, which began in 1973.

U.AlSharif--SF-PST