B.C.’s Pickrem wins bronze at FINA worlds
Sydney Pickrem won Canada’s fourth medal of the FINA world championships on Sunday, earning bronze in the women’s 400-metre individual medley.
Pickrem, of Clearwater, B.C., secured third place with a personalbest time of four minutes 32.88 seconds.
“It’s the first 400 IM international level final I’ve ever made. I knew when I didn’t make the final in Rio I had so much left, so to finally be able to get in at night and give it all I’ve got, a result like that means the world,” said Pickrem, the youngest competitor in the final at age 20.
Later Sunday, Canada narrowly missed the podium in the women’s four-by-100 medley relay. The team featuring Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Kierra Smith and Chantal van Landeghem finished fourth in a Canadian-record time of 3:54.86.
Earlier, Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., finished eighth in the women’s 50 breaststroke in 30.80 seconds. American Lilly King won gold in 29.40.
This year’s highlight for Canada was Masse’s world-record swim to 100-metre backstroke gold on Tuesday. The mixed four-by100-metre freestyle and medley relay teams also won bronze. Canada made 17 appearances in finals.
“(Seventeen) finals … is the best since the 1978 world championships,” Swimming Canada high performance director John Atkinson said.
Meanwhile, Caeleb Dressel won his seventh gold medal of the event Sunday. Twenty-four hours after becoming the first swimmer to win three golds in one night at a major international meet, the 20-yearold American became the second athlete after Michael Phelps to win seven golds at the second-biggest meet after the Olympics.
The University of Florida student won three individual golds and was part of four winning relay teams.