Canada’s Pickrem wins bronze in 400m individual medley at worlds

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Sydney Pickrem won Canada’s fourth medal of the FINA world championships on Sunday, earning bronze in the women’s 400-me- tre individual medley.

Pickrem, of Clearwater, B.C., se- cured third place with a personal best time of four minutes 32.88 seconds — the second-fastest in Canadian history. She vaulted onto the podium a year after her 12th-place finish in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“It means the world to me, it’s the first 400 IM international level final I’ve ever made,” said Pickrem, the youngest competitor in the final at 20. “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.”

Home crowd favourite Katinka Hosszu, of Pecs, Hungary, won gold in a championship record 4:29.33 while Spain’s Mireia Belmonte took silver in 4:32.17.

Pickrem had the fourth-best time overall in the heats to qualify for the final.

Pickrem had been ranked third entering Monday’s 200 individual medley final but had to stop after

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.”

50 metres after taking on water during the butterfly leg.

“The emotions have definitely taken a toll,” Pickrem said. “It’s been a learning process, and luckily it came out the most positive it could have. I felt like I let down Canada in the 200 IM so to be able to go out there and get on the podium means a lot.”

Later Sunday, Canada narrowly missed the podium in the women’s 4x100 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.

The United States won gold in 3:51.55 to set a new world record, Russia took silver and Australia earned bronze.

Canada finished fifth in the event at the Rio Olympics last summer.

“It was incredible,” said Masse, who won gold in the 100 backstroke on Tuesday with a worldrecord performance. “It’s been a long week so the crowd has helped bring the energy back. Definitely as a group we tried to pump each other up as much as we can, really have fun with it as much as we can and put our best foot forward.”

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.

Canada matched its medal total from the Kazan 2015 FINA world championships with four medals. Canada made 17 appearances in finals, up from 16 in Kazan, with an additional 20 top-16 finishers, up from 10 in 2015.