Masse rides wave to world record
Canadian wins gold in 100m backstroke
Kylie Masse BUDAPEST, HUNGARY didn’t know how special her race was, that she was making history as she completed the 100-metre backstroke in a world record time of 58.10 seconds on Tuesday.
“I touched the wall and I looked back and I had to make sure I was looking at the right name and the right time,” Masse said on a conference call. “In the moment, I don’t even know what I was thinking but excitement and joy.”
With the win, Masse became Canada’s first world champion in a women’s swimming event and the country’s first world record holder since Annamay Pierse set the standard in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke in 2009.
Masse broke the oldest world record in women’s swimming, the 58.12 seconds set by British backstroker Gemma Spofforth in 2009, before high-tech swimsuits were banned. She’s the first Canadian world champion since Brent Hayden won gold in men’s 100-metre freestyle in 2007.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” said Masse, who finished ahead of silver medallist Kathleen Baker of the U.S. (58.58) and Australia’s Emily Seebohm (58.59).
A year ago, she wouldn’t have thought this possible.
“I think, definitely, before the Olympics I wouldn’t have thought that (I could win a world title),” she said. “But after the Olympics, I think I really saw that I belong in the final and I belong on the podium. So, yeah, I think that just all comes with confidence. I think that, like, this entire year I felt better, I guess, about my racing.”
Masse returns to the pool Wednesday for the 50-metre backstroke.
In other events Tuesday:
American Katie Ledecky breezed to her third and fourth gold medals of the world championships, capturing the 1,500-metre freestyle by more than half the length of the pool and the 200-metre freestyle by .39 seconds.
Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C. finished sixth in the 100-metre breaststroke final with a time of 1:06.90. It was her first international final in the distance. American Lilly King won gold. Smith will compete Thursday in the 200-metre breaststroke, in which she finished seventh at the Rio Olympics. Canadians MarySophie Harvey of Trois-Rivieres, Que., (1:58.15) and Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., (1:58.46) finished 14th and 15th in the women’s 200-metre freestyle.