Maggie Mac Neil's butterfly gold, relay bronze highlight 4-medal day for Canada at short course worlds
Fellow Canadian Ingrid Wilm takes bronze in women's 100m backstroke
Canadian swimmers continued to climb the podium on Wednesday at the world short course championships in Melbourne, Australia, including a gold medal won by Maggie Mac Neil in the women's 50-metre butterfly.
The Canadian swam to a national-record finish in 24.64 seconds, tying with American Torri Huske for first place. China's Zhang Yufei (24.71) rounded out the podium in third place.
Mac Neil, of London, Ont., already had a bronze medal win to her credit after helping Canada to a third-place finish in Tuesday's 4x100m final.
WATCH | Mac Neil golden in butterfly:
The 22-year-old, who wears glasses outside of the pool, said it took a beat for her to realize she'd won gold.
"First, I'm like blind," joked Mac Neil, who famously squinted at the scoreboard after winning 100m butterfly gold at the Tokyo Olympics. "I couldn't really see around my block but then Torri was like, 'We tied!' And I was like, 'Oh, really?'"
In the women's backstroke, Calgary's Ingrid Wilm tied for bronze with Claire Curzan of the U.S., both touching the wall in 55.74. Fellow Canadian Kylie Masse, of La Salle, Ont., finished sixth in a time of 56.18.
"I'm happy I went a faster time than semis. That's an incredibly fast field so I went in there with no expectations," Wilm said.
WATCH | Wilm ties for bronze in backstroke:
Australian swimmers Kaylee McKeown (55.49) and Mollie O'Callaghan (55.62) took gold and silver, respectively.
Mac Neil and Masse combined forces with Toronto's Javier Acevedo and Montreal's Ilya Kharun to help the Canadian mixed 50m medley relay team win bronze. The Canadians' time of 1:36.93, was a little over a second behind the world-record pace of the American team (1:35.15).
Canada initially touched in fifth, but a pair of disqualifications bumped the foursome onto the podium.
"We're heading to our team area and then all of a sudden we see one team gets DQ'd then another. So it was kind of a roller-coaster of emotions. It was super fun though and we all were excited," said Acevedo, a two-time Olympian. "I'm just really happy with how we all stepped up, and we got a little lucky as well."
WATCH | Canadian 4x50 mixed medley relay team lands on podium:
More relay success
The Canadian women's 4x200m added a silver-medal finish, fending off the Americans, but behind a world record swim by Australia.
Rebecca Smith, Katerine Savard, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Taylor Ruck combined to finish in 7:34.47, which was 0.37 seconds ahead of the U.S., but well behind Australia's new world standard of 7:30.87.
Smith, Savard and Ruck also won relay bronze with Mac Neil in the women's 4x100m relay on Tuesday. Smith has piled up three personal bests in leadoff legs already at the meet.
"Relays are so exciting and to swim for these girls, it just gets me all the more amped up. It was so much fun and I'm so proud of how everyone did," said Smith. "I came into this meet with no expectations and I think that's just really been helping me."
WATCH | Canada snags relay silver:
Ruck, who made up two seconds on American counterpart Leah Smith, held on to maintain Canada's advantage.
"I went out a bit fast as I usually do, but I just knew I needed to hold on so that was my main focus on that last 100," Ruck said. "It hurt so bad. It's taken me a good 10 minutes to get back to feeling normal now."
Competition in Melbourne runs through Sunday.
