GWANGJU, South Korea - Kylie Masse won the bronze medal in the women's 200-m backstroke on Saturday for a Canadian record seventh pool medal at the FINA world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Masse, who won her second straight 100 backstroke world title earlier this week, also equals Penny Oleksiak as the most decorated female swimmer at worlds with four career medals and also ties Sydney Pickrem for the Canadian woman with the most individual medals at worlds with three.
Canada now has two gold and five bronze in the pool this week as well as an open water bronze last week for Eric Hedlin. The previous pool mark was six, set in 1978.
In the women's 200-m backstroke, Regan Smith of the U.S. reinforced her dominance in the event clocking 2:03.69, 0.34 off her world record set in Friday's semifinal. Kaylee McKeown of Australia won a heated battle for silver in 2:06.26 edging Masse, of the University of Toronto, in third in 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 in her performances.
''It was a great effort by Kylie on Day 7,'' said Atkinson. ''A lot of credit is also due to her coaches Linda Kiefer and Byron Macdonald at the University of Toronto.''
"That was an excellent effort by Kylie to win that bronze medal," said MacDonald. "Two years ago she missed the podium in the 200 metre so she has advanced her career to where she can now medal in two events on the world stage, which is great."
The eight-day meet continues through Sunday at the Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center.
FINA TV (
https://www.finatv.live/en), CBC (
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/broadcast) and Radio-Canada (
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/horaire-diffusions) will webcast finals live at 7 a.m. ET each day, with highlights on CBC's Road to the Olympic Games show. Viewers can download the CBC broadcast schedule to sync with smartphone calendar apps here:
http://calrep.ly/2JDCwxx.
Full results:
http://www.omegatiming.com/2019/18th-fina-world-championships-sw-live-results
Visit
www.swimming.ca for bios, profiles, preview stories and recaps, and follow Swimming Canada on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the championships.
Source: Swimming Canada
