Pool of talent Canada’s deepest yet
Swim medal haul hits seven with Masse bronze to break national mark
Kylie Masse helped set a Canadian record by winning a bronze medal in the 200-metre backstroke on Saturday at the FINA world aquatics championships.
Masse’s bronze was Canada’s seventh medal in the pool, the most Canada has ever won at the worlds.
Canada has two gold and five bronze — plus an open water bronze by Eric Hedlin. The previous pool mark of six was set in 1978 — when Graham Smith, Cheryl Gibson and Wendy Quirk took home two medals apiece.
Masse, also the two-time defending champion in100-metre backstroke, equalled Penny Oleksiak as Canada’s most decorated female swimmer at the world championships with four career medals, and tied Sydney Pickrem for the most individual medals by a Canadian woman at the worlds with three.
In the 200 backstroke final, Regan Smith of the U.S. reinforced her dominance, winning in two minutes 3.69 seconds — 0.34 off her world record, which was set in Friday’s semifinal. Kaylee McKeown of Australia won a heated battle for silver in 2:06.26, edging Masse’s time of 2:06.62.
“I can’t complain,” said Masse. “The time is not as fast as I’ve been, but I’m really happy to be on the podium. I’m super happy for Regan and I think it will only push the backstroke field even faster. It definitely motivates me to get back to work and keep improving.” John Atkinson, Swimming Canada’s high performance director, praised Masse’s consistency.
“It was a great effort by Kylie on day seven,” said Atkinson. “A lot of credit is also due to her coaches, Linda Kiefer and Byron MacDonald at the University of Toronto.”
There was hope for another Canadian podium finish in the mixed 4x100-metre freestyle relay, but the foursome came up 0.43 seconds short and wound up fourth — in a Canadian record 3:22.54. The Americans set a world record by winning in 3:19.40. Australia was second in 3:19.97, France third in 3:22.11. Markus Thormeyer, Yuri Kisil, Taylor Ruck and Oleksiak followed.
Oleksiak swam a personalbest anchor split time of 52 seconds to move Canada up from sixth, but couldn’t quite catch France’s Marie Wattel despite making up more than a second.
“Everyone did a really good job,” said Kisil. “I just know from my own swim, there’s a lot I can improve on. It wasn’t the greatest time. I’m just proud of everyone stepping up.”
“We tried to race to the best of our abilities,” added Ruck. “It was hard. There was a huge wave from both sides and I thought we handled it well.”
In the 50-metre butterfly final, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden — upset by Canadian Maggie MacNeil in the 100 fly on Monday — made it three world titles in a row, clocking 25.02 seconds. Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands followed in 25.35, with Farida Osman of Egypt third in 25.47. Oleksiak took sixth in 25.69, just 0.07 seconds off her Canadian record — set at the 2017 worlds — and the third-fastest time of her career.