Canada's Josh Liendo, Ilya Kharun qualify for 100m butterfly final at swimming worlds
Summer McIntosh wins 800m freestyle heat, setting up showdown with Katie Ledecky
A pair of Canadians advanced to the final in the men's 100-metre butterfly at the swimming world championships after strong semifinal swims on Friday in Singapore.
Toronto's Josh Liendo and Montreal's Ilya Kharun qualified second and fourth overall, respectively.
Liendo, who took silver in the event at Paris 2024, clocked a time of 50.24 seconds to finish second in the second semifinal behind Switzerland's Noe Ponti (50.18).
The 22-year-old Liendo was sixth at the turn before surging down the stretch and nearly catching Ponti.
"I've got to send that first 50 tomorrow; that'll be the plan." Liendo told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux after the semifinals.
Kharun, 20, finished second in the first semifinal in 50.39, just behind France's Maxime Grousset (50.25).
"I'm putting everything on the line here for this event. I wanted to win but this is a pretty good step towards winning," said Kharun, who finished fourth in the 200 butterfly and narrowly missed qualifying for the 50 fly final.
Kharun claimed Olympic bronze in both the 100- and 200 butterfly in Paris.
The final is scheduled for Saturday at 7:43 a.m. ET.
Summer McIntosh returned to the pool Friday morning and won her women's 800m freestyle heat, setting up her latest showdown with American rival Katie Ledecky on Saturday at 8:21 a.m. ET.
McIntosh won the second heat with a time of 8:19.88. She had the third-best overall time behind Australia's Lani Pallister (8:17.06) and Ledecky (8:14.62), who both qualified from the third heat.
Ledecky, a four-time Olympic champion in the event, also holds the world record (8:04.12).
"Any time I get to race Katie, whether it's in the 800, which I haven't done in a while or the 400 or any event really, any time we get a matchup it's lots of fun," McIntosh said. "She pushes me to reach bigger goals, so I'm really excited to race her tomorrow night."
The 18-year-old superstar from Toronto is three-for-three in her pursuit of five individual gold medals at worlds, having won the 200m butterfly on Thursday to complete a golden hat trick.
She beat Ledecky in the 400m freestyle on the opening day for the first of her three gold medals, which is the most by a Canadian at a world championship.
McIntosh, who was also victorious in the 200m individual medley, is set to swim in the 400 medley heats on Saturday night.
Legendary U.S. Olympian Michael Phelps is the only swimmer to have won five solo titles at a single long-course world championships.
Fellow Canadian Blake Tierney nearly reached the podium later Friday in the men's 200m backstroke final.
The 23-year-old Saskatoon native finished fourth in 1:55.09 — 0.5 seconds behind French bronze medallist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard.
"This is my first time ever making a semi, let alone a final, in the 200 back," Tierney said. "The plan was really just to treat each swim like it was my only swim so if I didn't make a semi or final I'd be able to walk with my head high. So I think it was a little more taxing than maybe some of the other guys who maybe cruised some in the morning. But three 1:55s, I'm pretty happy with that."
Olympic champion Hubert Kos of Hungary successfully defended his world title with a European-record time of 1:53.19. South Africa's Pieter Coetze, who won the 100 back, claimed silver while setting the African record (1:53.36).
Watch live coverage of every race at the swimming worlds on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, with finals beginning at 7 a.m. ET each day. The full competition schedule is available here.
Tierney lowered the Canadian record in the event during his heat and again in his semifinal to qualify with the fifth-fastest overall time of 1:55.03.
In other Canadian results, Kelowna, B.C.'s Taylor Ruck failed to reach the women's 50m backstroke final after placing sixth in her semifinal and 13th overall.
Ruck has the 50m freestyle beginning Saturday and will likely factor into the women's 4x100-m medley relay Sunday.
Ingrid Wilm of Calgary also missed out on a final, finishing seventh in her women's 200m backstroke semifinal with the 13th-fastest overall time.
12-year-old Yu makes history with bronze
Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi has won a bronze medal, an astounding feat for a girl who would be a sixth- or seventh-grade student depending on the school system.
Yu earned the medal by swimming in the prelims of China's 4x200m freestyle relay team. She did not swim in the final on Thursday — China placed third behind winning Australia and the United States — but gets a bronze medal as a team member.
She became the youngest swimmer ever to win a medal at worlds, surpassing Canadian Allison Higson, who earned bronze in the 200m breaststroke at 13 in 1986.
Yu's been close to winning an individual medal, placing fourth in both the 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley. She still has the 400 IM to swim.
Brent Nowicki, the executive director of World Aquatics, said the governing body would look at its age-limit rules. The limit is now 14, but athletes can reach the worlds if they surpass a tough time standard.
"I didn't think I'd have this conversation, but now I think we have to go back and say is this appropriate?" he said this week in Singapore. "Is this really the right way to go forward and do we need to do other things? Put other guardrails up? Do we allow it under certain conditions? I don't know the answer."
He called Yu "great." He also said officials had to be "careful" about the age issue.
The gold medals were spread around on Friday, thanks to the absence of McIntosh and French star Leon Marchand from any finals on Day 6 in Singapore.
Marchand, who has already broken the world record in the 200m individual medley, will try to break his own 400 IM record on Sunday, the final day.
Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands powered through the last 50 metres to win the women's 100m freestyle. Steenbergen won in 52.55 seconds, with silver for Mollie O'Callaghan (52.67) of Australia and bronze to Torri Huske (52.89) of the United States.
Steenbergen won this event at the 2024 worlds in Doha, but those championships were lightly attended. This race had a tough field. Both O'Callaghan and Huske are Olympic individual champions, but not in this event.
It was the first gold medal for the Netherlands in Singapore.
China's Qin Haiyang, who holds the world record, won the men's 200 breaststroke in 2:07.41 with second for Ippei Watanabe (2:07.70) of Japan and bronze to Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands (2:07.73). Haiyang also won the 100 breaststroke in Singapore.
Haiyang swam from Lane 8 and called winning from that far outside position "a miracle." He set the world record two years ago in the worlds in Fukuoka, Japan (2:05.48).
American Kate Douglass got the U.S. its fifth individual gold in these championships, taking the 200 breaststroke in 2:18.50, the second fastest in history. Evgeniia Chikunova of the Neutral Athletes was second (2:19.96). Kaylene Corbett of South Africa and Alina Zmushka of the Neutral Athletes tied for bronze (2:23.52).
The Americans have been slowed through the championships with dozens of members of the team having picked up "acute gastroenteritis" at a training camp in Thailand before arriving in Singapore. Head Coach Greg Meehan said the "overall majority" of the team had been affected.
In the men's 4x200 freestyle relay, Great Britain won its first gold and first medal with a time of 6:59.84.
China took silver (7:00.91) with bronze for Australia (7:00.98). The United States was fourth in 7:01.24.
Reporter Devin Heroux will be on site in Singapore speaking to Canadians following their races, and will join The Ready Room show live on YouTube every day after finals, with Brittany MacLean Campbell hosting from Toronto. The show will include Canadian highlights, athlete interviews and analysis.
With files from Swimming Canada, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
