BUDAPEST, Hungary — Canada earned its third medal at the swimming world championships on Saturday with a bronze in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay.
The Canadian team of Penny Oleksiak, Chantal van Landeghem, Javier Acevedo and Yuri Kisil set a Canadian record of three minutes 23.55 seconds to take third place. The United States won gold in a world record 3:19.60 while the Netherlands took silver.
"It's the most exciting event in my eyes. You never know who's going to win until they touch the wall, so it's pretty cool," said Kisil. "With guys and girls racing each other, there can be a huge lead and all of a sudden that lead can just drop," said Kisil.
Canada was seventh after Acevedo's leg, but van Landeghem brought them back to fourth to set up Oleksiak as the anchor. The 17-year-old from Toronto, who won four Olympic medals last summer in Rio, passed Hungary for bronze. The Canadians also took bronze in the 4×100 medley relay on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Oleksiak finished fifth in the women's 50 butterfly while LaSalle, Ont., native Kylie Masse and Hilary Caldwell of White Rock, B.C., placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200 backstroke.
"It was a tough race. I could kind of see that we were close on the last 50," said Masse, who captured the 100 backstroke in a world-record time Tuesday.
Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., advanced to Sunday's final in the women's 50 breaststroke. Her personal best of 30.49 moved the 24-year-old through in the eighth seed.
Sydney Pickrem, 20, swims the 400 individual medley Sunday morning looking for a spot in the finals. Canada will also have its men's and women's medley relays in action.
The Canadian Press
