Personal best lands Santo Condorelli a spot in 50m freestyle swim semis

By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports

Santo Condorelli rebounded from a fourth-place finish in Wednesday's 100-metre freestyle swim final to qualify for Thursday night's 50 semifinals. Fellow Canadian Yuri Kisil placed 35th and won't advance.

Condorelli raced to a personal-best 21.83 second to finish third in his heat and tied for seventh among the 16 swimmers to qualify for the semifinals at 9:03 p.m. ET at Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio.

• SCHEDULE & RESULTS: Swimming at Rio 2016
• Condorelli narrowly misses podium in men's 100 free
• VIDEO: Canada's 4x200m freestyle relay medal ceremony
• VIDEO: Canadian women's 4x200m relay team reflect on bronze medal

A few hours earlier, the Japanese-born Condorelli, a Canadian by way of his mom of Kenora, Ont., nearly put the Canadian male swimmers on the podium for the first time at these Summer Games.The 21-year-old stopped the clock in 47.88 in the 100, missing a medal by a mere 3/100ths of a second.

"Yeah, it kind of sucks, I wanted to be Top 3, but there's another Olympics in me," Condorelli said after the race.

Later Thursday, Condorelli won his 100m butterfly heat race in an unofficial 51.99, just shy of his Canadian record of 51.88, set in early June at the Pro Swim Series event in Indianapolis.

• VIDEO: Santo Condorelli on to the semifinals in men's 100m butterfly

It was good enough to qualify 14th of 16th for the semifinals, scheduled for 10:34 p.m. But the question is, will Condorelli race in the 50 free and 100 fly in a span of 90 minutes?

Kisil also failed to qualify for the 100 free final on Tuesday when he finished 10th in the semifinal in 48.28.

Women's 800 free

Perhaps a little tired and still ailing from missing Wednesday's 4x200 free relay heats due to illness, Canada's Brittany MacLean finished 10th in Thursday's women's 800 free heats in eight minutes 26.43 seconds.

That time put MacLean fifth overall but she was bumped outside of the top-eight qualifiers after the final heat.

The Toronto native will still leave Rio happy after capturing her first Olympic medal, helping the Canadian women to their fourth medal of these Games in the 4x200 relay.

The final is set for Friday at 9:20 p.m. ET.

Women's 200 backstroke

Hilary Caldwell of White Rock, B.C., and Dominique Bouchard of North Bay, Ont., qualified second and seventh, respectively for Thursday's semifinals at 9:35 p.m. ET.

• WATCH: Hilary Caldwell advances to women's 200m backstroke semis

Caldwell, the 25-year-old gold medallist at last summer's Pan Am Games in Toronto, turned in one of her stronger performances of the last two years in two minutes 7.40 seconds.

Bouchard, also 25, stopped the clock in 2:08.87 after she failed to make the cut in the 100 back semifinals on Sunday in Rio, finishing 12th overall.

• WATCH: Dominique Bouchard advances to women's 200m backstroke semis

Oleksiak vies for 4th medal in Rio

Canada's teenaged sensation, 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak, will try to reach the podium for a fourth time in Rio in Thursday's women's 100 free final at 10:18 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday night, she anchored the 4x200 free relay team to a bronze medal. Earlier in the evening, Oleksiak swam an impressive 100 free to qualify second for the final.

Oleksiak also won silver in the 100 fly and bronze in the 4x100 free relay. She is the first Canadian Olympian since 1984 to win three medals at a Summer Games, and only the sixth all-time.