Key Takeaways:
- Sydney Pickrem also wins a gold medal in the 200m medley.
- On Monday, Canada’s medal haul at the world short-course swimming championship in Abu Dhabi was extended.
Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., set a world record in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 25.27 seconds. Kylie Masse of La Salle finished second in 25.62 seconds. Louise Hansson of Sweden finished third.
“I would not have thought you if you told me my first world record would be backstroke,” said Mac Neil, the Olympic champion in the 100 butterflies in Tokyo and the world long-course champion in 2019. “But I knew there was a chance if I could improve my turns. So that was unquestionably my goal going into this meet.”
So far in the competition, Canada has won 12 medals.
“The 50 is all about power and underwaters, and swimming is my strength, so the 50 is always the biggest challenge for me,” Masse explained. “I’m thrilled to be on the podium. To be standing next to Maggie as she broke the world record, I knew she had been close a couple of times before and was determined to break it.”
Earlier in the day, Sydney Pickrem won gold in the 200m individual medley after qualifying for the finals with the third-fastest time in the heats.
Pickrem, from Halifax, trailed USA’s Kate Douglass and China’s Yiting Yu after the first 100m, but by the 150m mark, she was in front and held on to win gold in two minutes and 4.29 seconds.
Yuwas took silver with a time of 0.19 seconds, while Douglass took bronze with 0.39 seconds slower than the Canadian.
“I knew I had to have my best back half because that’s my strength,” Pickrem said. “With how my preparation has been this season, the times don’t matter; it’s just getting up and racing.”
Canada finished the day by winning gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay with a time of 7:32.96, which was 03.57 seconds faster than the US, which took silver, and 06.96 seconds faster than China, which took bronze.
Toronto’s summer McIntosh led Canada off and finished third behind China and the United States. Ont., Kayla Sanchez of Scarborough was up next and passed both the United States and China to give Canada the lead. Katerine Savard from Pont-Rouge, Quebec
Source: CBC News
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