Canada earns relay bronze at swimming worlds, McIntosh on pace for 3rd gold
Masse, Dawson, Liendo and Ruck power Canadians to 5th medal in Singapore
Canada captured bronze in the mixed 4x100-metre medley relay Wednesday at the world aquatics championship for its fifth medal in Singapore.
The team of Kylie Masse, of LaSalle, Ont., Oliver Dawson, of Grande Prairie, Alta., Toronto's Josh Liendo and Taylor Ruck, of Kelowna, B.C., finished in three minutes 40.90 seconds, just ahead of the Netherlands.
Neutral Athletes B — a team of Russian swimmers competing under a neutral flag — won gold in a meet-record 3:37.97, with China taking silver in 3:39.99. Russia is competing under a neutral banner due to ongoing international sanctions following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
WATCH | Canada wins medley relay bronze:
"It's awesome," Masse told CBC Sports reporter Devin Heroux of the podium finish.
"This race is so unpredictable and even leading into tonight I had no idea what to expect. I think we were all just really excited and knew we had a lane and an opportunity."
Masse, who earns her 10th career medal to move back into a tie with Summer McIntosh for most ever at long-course worlds, led off with a solid 58.69 in the backstroke. Swimming against six men and Australian champion Kaylee McKeown, Masse touched eighth.
But Dawson, who swam the breaststroke leg began the Canadians' comeback. By the time Liendo's finished the breaststroke portion, Canada was sitting in fourth.
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.
"You just have to get ready," Liendo said of the time he needed to make up. "You see everyone else going [and] you have to put the blinders on and catch people."
The veteran Ruck, swimming the anchor leg, then rallied Canada back to the bronze medal with a strong freestyle performance.
After Liendo saw Ruck had moved into third, he was smacking the deck and wall as he cheered her on. The four-time Olympic medallist's anchor split of 52.94 ended up being her fastest in three years.
"I definitely was feeling all the emotions, said Ruck. "Having my teammates go through it, and then the roar of the crowd and all that kind of stuff. The intensity and energy was there, so I just wanted to not go too, too fast and make sure you're executing the race. It can be kind of tempting to just spend all the energy the first 50."
WATCH | Canadians excited to reach the podium:
Asked if he was nervous, Dawson said, "I wasn't 100 per cent nervous, but I was a little nervous.
"I've done the work to be able to do this and I know my teammates have as well," added the Grande Prairie (Alta.) Piranhas swimmer, coached by his father Alex Dawson, whose national team staff responsibilities included this relay team.
"Honestly, so many years on this team it makes it more and more special every time that your team has your back like that," said Ruck.
WATCH | Ready Room: MacLean Campbell, Heroux react to Canada's relay medal:
McIntosh into 200m butterfly final
Meanwhile, Olympic champion McIntosh cruised into the final of the women's 200m butterfly.
The 18-year-old Toronto native qualified second in a time of 2:06.22 behind Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers (2:06.13).
"I just needed to make the final using the least amount of energy: mental, emotional, physical, all the things," said McIntosh.
McIntosh captured gold at the 2024 Olympics, and won world titles in 2022 and 2023.
McIntosh has already won gold medals in both the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley events in Singapore. She'll swim for a third butterfly title on Thursday at 7:02 a.m. ET.
"I'm just going to rest, recover tomorrow morning and then get ready for the final tomorrow night, which I'm really excited about," she said.
WATCH | Ready Room: Why didn't McIntosh push for 200m butterfly world record:
Kharun misses podium
Earlier in the day, Ilya Kharun of Montreal placed fourth in the men's 200 butterfly, finishing in 1:54.34 — just 0.17 seconds off the podium after winning Olympic bronze in Paris.
It's an event he earned a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
American Luca Urlando, a breakout star, won the gold medal in 1:51.87, while Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski took the silver in 1:52.64. Australian Harrison Turner earned the bronze with a time of 1:54.17.
Kharun, known for his back-end speed, led after the first 50 metres before falling back.
"I just need to move on to the next race. I've got to do more training in that and that's it," said the 20-year-old.
WATCH | Urlando wins 200m butterfly, Kharun 4th:
Canadians Ingrid Wilm and Masse both advance to the final of the women's 50m backstroke. Fellow Canadian Tristan Jankovics failed to qualify for the final of the men's 200 IM.
Marchand breaks 200m IM world record
Leon Marchand broke the world record in the 200m IM, clocking 1:52.69 seconds to surpass the 1:54.00 set in 2011 by American Ryan Lochte.
The Frenchman set the mark swimming in the semifinals and, in theory, could break it again in Thursday's finals.
Marchand won four Olympic gold medals a year ago in Paris, but he's swimming only the 200 and 400 medley — and relays — in Singapore. Planning the lighter schedule in what he calls a "transition year" keeps him fresh to chase the world marks.
Marchand didn't just break the 14-year-old record, he shattered it.
"What's crazy is that it's a whole second — and it's still hard to believe," he said. "1:52 on the 200 meters — that's insane."
Marchand will swim the 400 IM on Sunday, the final day of the world championships. He holds that record of 4:02.50 set in the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.
"Today I felt really good before the race," he said. "In the water, I felt light, I was taking in a lot of water and technically everything felt clean."
Asked about swimming a lighter schedule he replied in understatement: "It was probably the right decision."
Marchand was about 1.8 seconds under the world record after 150 meters and powered home with the final freestyle leg.
Though this race did not yield a world title — that will come on Thursday in the final — it did win Marchand a check for $30,000 US.
"In the end I went out hard from the start," he said. "But I stayed super-relaxed. I didn't make many mistakes. I didn't realize I was going that fast but I gave it absolutely everything. Arms at full speed all the way to the wall. At that point I wasn't even thinking about technique anymore."
WATCH | Marchand smashes world record:
Jaouadi savours 1st world title after depression battle
Ahmed Jaouadi said he spent months battling depression following a disappointing end to 2024 but the Tunisian was all smiles after winning the 800m freestyle title in the third-fastest time ever at the world championships in Singapore.
Jaouadi had finished third in the event at the Budapest short course world championships last December and the 20-year-old was so disheartened by the result he did not return to training until March.
However, his performance at the Singapore Sports Hub proved he had no reason to doubt himself.
Jaouadi reached the wall in seven minutes, 36.88 seconds, a time that sits behind only China's Zhang Lin (7:32.12) and fellow Tunisian Ous Mellouli (7:35.27) in the all-time list.
Both Zhang and Mellouli achieved their marks in 2009 wearing high-tech "supersuits," which are now banned.
"Actually it means a lot. It's the third-best time ever," said Jaouadi.
"It feels great. Especially this season. I didn't go back to training until March. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this. After Budapest, I got into some kind of depression and I wasn't ready to go back to training at some point.
"It makes me really happy. During the last days of training, I was expecting this, and I knew that I'll go fast. But at some point, I didn't have a lot of confidence going through.
"My team, my staff, the people around me knew how to control things and helped me through this."
Jaouadi made his move after the halfway mark to beat the German pair of Sven Schwarz and Lukas Martens in the final and win his first major title.
"I just pushed my head down. I saw that as soon as I started to push down on my arms, I started to go faster than the others, I started to pull away," he added.
Jaouadi dedicated his gold medal to compatriot and Tokyo Olympics 400 freestyle champion Ahmed Hafnaoui, who was given a 21-month suspension in April by the Aquatic Sports Integrity Unit for three whereabouts failures.
"This one was for Hafnaoui," Jaouadi added.
"He's having some hard times now and I'd like to offer it for him."
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 CBC Sports, Reuters and The Associated Press
