Bronze for Canada in medley

Canada picked up its second swimming medal at the world aquatic championships with a bronze in the 4x100-metre mixed medley on Wednesday.

Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., Edmonton’s Richard Funk, Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak and Calgary’s Yuri Kisil set a Canadian record with a time of three minutes, 41.25 seconds to tie China for bronze.

The U.S. won in a world-record time of 3:38.56, followed by Australia in 3:41.21.

It’s the second medal of the championships for Masse. The 21year-old took gold and set a world record in the women’s 100-m backstroke 24 hours earlier.

“It was such an incredible experience. That mixed relay is something I’ve never done before and isn’t offered at a lot of meets,” Masse said. “To be able to do it here at world championships was so much fun. To compete for other people as well makes it even better and is almost more motivating. You get more excited and there’s more energy so it was a really fun experience.”

Masse led off with a time of 58.22 in backstroke to put Canada sixth. Canada sat seventh after Funk’s breaststroke (59.14) and Oleksiak’s butterfly (56.18). Kisil then charged past Great Britain, Russia and Italy to vault Canada into the third-place tie with her freestyle.

In a morning heat, Funk teamed with Toronto’s Javier Acevedo, Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alta., and Winnipeg’s Chantal Van Landeghem, who also get medals for advancing Canada to the final by qualifying third. They held the Canadian record at 3:44.46 for a few hours before the final.

The national relay mark was Masse’s second Canadian record of the night. She shaved 0.03 off her own previous best in the 50metre backstroke with a time of 27.64, but finished 10th, just 0.04 seconds short of a spot in the final.