(Photo credit: REUTERS/Tingshu Wang)

Canada's Summer McIntosh dominated the 200-meter butterfly on Thursday to claim her third gold medal in as many races at the world championships in Singapore.

The 18-year-old's winning time of 2:01.99 was just shy of the world record of 2:01.81 set by China's Liu Zige in 2009, which stands as the oldest world record in women's swimming.

As it stands, McIntosh set the second-fastest time in history and broke her personal best of 2:02.21 at last month's Canadian trials. It's her third straight worlds gold in the 200 fly, in which she also won gold at last year's Olympics.

On Thursday, McIntosh easily outpaced American rival Regan Smith, who was never a threat despite taking silver with a time of 2:04.99. Smith's final split of 32.19 helped her move past Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers, who won bronze in 2:06.12.

While McIntosh now owns three of the top four times in history, she admitted falling 0.18 short of the world record was disappointing.

'Going into tonight, my coach and I, our big goal was to break that world record,' McIntosh said, per Swimming World magazine. 'It's what I've been training for. To see that I missed it by that little, and I know that I messed up the last 15 meters of my race.

'Overall, happy with the time and a (personal best), but I didn't reach my goal tonight. Happy with the gold, happy with the win, just going to keep pushing forward.'

McIntosh added the 200 freestyle to golds in the 400 freestyle and the 200 individual medley earlier in the meet as she attempts to equal American Michael Phelps' record of five individual golds in a single worlds.

Next up is a highly anticipated showdown against six-time world champion Katie Ledecky in the 800 freestyle, where the finals are scheduled for Saturday. If she can claim gold in the 800, Phelps' record will be very much in reach. McIntosh's final race of the meet is Sunday's 400 IM, an event she has never lost during her international career and set the world record in yet again last month.

On the men's side, French star Leon Marchand won gold in the 200 IM with a time of 1:53.68, coming just short of beating his own world record set the previous day. American Shaine Casas claimed silver with a personal best of 1:54.30.

--Field Level Media