Canadian women swim to relay bronze on final day of World Aquatics Championships
Canada ends 17-day event with 11 medals in pool
Canada ended the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, on a high note on Sunday, winning bronze in the women's 4x100-metre medley relay.
Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., touched the wall in a final time of three minutes 56.43 seconds to claim third place behind gold medallist Australia (3:55.98) and silver medallist Sweden (3:56.35).
Joining Ruck on the Canadian squad were Toronto's Sophie Angus, Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alta., and Calgary's Ingrid Wilm, who added bronze medals in both the 50m and 100m backstroke events earlier in the week.
WATCH | Canadian women cap off worlds with medley relay bronze:
Smith and Ruck also won bronze in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay on Feb. 11.
Sunday's bronze brought Canada's medal haul to 11 (two gold, three silver, six bronze) at the multi-sport worlds, which was the sixth-most medals won by a country at the event.
Seven of those medals (one gold, one silver, five bronze) were won in swimming, with Canada also winning one gold and one silver in artistic swimming, and one silver and one bronze in high diving.
With two each, Smith and Ruck now have eight all time, moving into a tie for third among Canadians with Ryan Cochrane, Maggie Mac Neil and Summer McIntosh. Only Penny Oleksiak and Kylie Masse, with nine each, have more.
"Coming away with seven medals, nine medallists, I think is a fantastic testament to the athletes, but also how well the coaching staff work with them and our support staff," said high-performance director and national coach John Atkinson. "We keep doing what we need to do day by day and that's an excellent situation to be in."
The Canadian men's team narrowly missed the 4x100m medley relay podium in the penultimate race of the 17-day competition, clocking in at 3:32.89 to finish 1.3 seconds behind third-place Italy.
The United States won gold in a time of 3:29.80, with the Netherlands taking silver in 3:31.23.
WATCH l Full replay of Day 8 swimming finals:
All seven of Canada's relays sit within the top 16 times combined between these championships and Fukuoka 2023, which puts them in position to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
"We had a strategy in Fukuoka at the last world championships to race in all our Olympic relays and we also competed in them here," Atkinson said. "As we finish the world championships here we have all seven of our Olympic relays ranked in positions that will receive quota spots from World Aquatics when confirmed."
Canadian athletes now turn their focus to the Olympic and Paralympic trials set for May 13-19 at the Olympic Pool in Montreal.
"The next step from here is everybody to go back, evaluate where they're at and get ready for the Olympic trials. Then it's full steam to Paris," Atkinson said.
Other Canadian results
- Ruck placed fifth in the women's 50m freestyle final
- Lorne Wiggington and Tessa Cieplucha each earned seventh-place finishes in the men's and women's 400m medley races, respectively
With files from The Canadian Press
