Canada matches all-time medals mark with Sydney Pickrem's 200m breaststroke bronze
Trio of world records fall at hands of Dressel, Smith, Chupkov
Sydney Pickrem swam onto the podium and into the Canadian record books on Friday at the world championships in Gwangju, Korea.
Pickrem won bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke at two minutes, 22.90 seconds. It was Canada's sixth swimming medal in the pool, which matches the national record at worlds set in 1978.
Pickrem, the 22-year-old from Halifax, also became the most decorated individual Canadian woman at worlds with her third career medal. Penny Oleksiak holds the overall record at four, but won some of those in relay events.
Russia's Yulia Efimova cruised to gold at 2:20.17, with South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker grabbing silver a full 2.35 seconds behind. It was Efimova's 14th individual world medal, tying her with Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Sjostrom for most among women. Schoenmaker earned her country's first-ever medal at worlds.
WATCH | Pickrem makes Canadian history with 200 breaststroke bronze:
Canadian Kelsey Wog also competed, placing sixth at 2:25.14.
Earlier at worlds, Pickrem earned another bronze in the 200 individual medley. Her first medal came in the 400 individual medley in 2017. But today's podium appearance was extra special, as it occurred on her mother's birthday.
"I wanted to try as much as I could to get on the podium," said Pickrem. "It's not the time that I wanted but it was better than semis so I'm just moving forward.
"There's a lot of fast swimming here and that motivates you whether it's your [main] event or not."
Canada could set a new medals record on Saturday, when Kylie Masse and Taylor Ruck compete in the 200 backstroke final. The country is also a favourite to qualify for the 4x200 mixed freestyle relay.
Casually becomes the first Canadian woman to win three individual medals at worlds and still makes time to wish mom a happy birthday🎂❤️<a href="https://twitter.com/sydneypickrem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sydneypickrem</a> <a href="https://t.co/llDZgXVe7v">pic.twitter.com/llDZgXVe7v</a>
—@CBCOlympicsEfimova's gold came without competition from American rival Lilly King, who was disqualified in the preliminary heats when she didn't touch both hands on the wall at the same time in a turn.
"I'm sad that she's not here because it would probably mean a more interesting race," Efimova said. "I told my dad after semifinals that I swam fast and I don't know what to do in finals because I did everything already."
WATCH | Pickrem reflects on her third career bronze medal:
Dressel crushes Phelps' fly record
Meanwhile, Caeleb Dressel broke Michael Phelps' decade-old world record in the 100 butterfly.
The American won his semifinal heat in 49.50 seconds — 0.32 seconds better than Phelps' mark set at the 2009 world meet in Rome at the height of the high-tech suit era.
Dressel was out in 22.83 seconds — 0.53 seconds under Phelps' pace — and came home in 26.67 to lead eight men into Saturday's final.
"Just the standard that Michael set, wanted to go after it," Dressel said. "I hope he was happy watching me do that."
He was a whopping 1.44 seconds ahead of Andrei Minakov of Russia, the second-quickest qualifier.
It's the second world record of Phelps' to fall at this year's worlds. Kristof Milak of Hungary won the 200 fly in 1:50.73, bettering Phelps' mark of 1:51.51 also set in Rome.
WATCH | Dressel takes down Phelps' world record:
Earlier, Simone Manuel won her second straight title in the 100 freestyle.
The American led all the way from Lane 1 and touched first in 52.04 seconds, beating Cate Campbell of Australia by 0.39 seconds.
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, the world-record holder, took bronze.
Canada's Taylor Ruck placed fifth at 53.03 seconds, one hundredth of a tick better than her fourth-place qualifying time. Penny Oleksiak, the co-reigning Olympic gold medallist along with Manuel, dropped the event.
Manuel was the only woman under 25 seconds on the opening lap. She knocked 1.27 seconds off her time from the morning semifinals. She had the slowest qualifying time of anyone in the eight-woman final.
"Not everybody has a perfect swim every time so I just needed to regroup and put on a good face," Manuel said. "I'm a veteran on the team, so I have to be able to show a little bit of poise in these hard moments."
WATCH | Manuel bursts out of Lane 1 to retain worlds gold:
Manuel became the second woman to win multiple titles in the 100 free, joining Kornelia Ender of the former East Germany, who won in 1973 and '75.
In 2016, Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming gold at the Olympics when she tied Oleksiak for gold in Rio de Janeiro.
Oleksiak advanced to the 50 butterfly final on Friday, a non-Olympic event where she clocked in at 25.93 seconds. Breakout Canadian star Maggie MacNeil missed the cut in 14th at 26.28 seconds.
Smith tacks on another for U.S.
Regan Smith, also of the U.S., broke another world record in the women's 200 backstroke.
The 17-year-old American won her semifinal heat in 2 minutes, 3.35 seconds. That erased the old mark of 2:04.06 set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics.
"I'm in shock," Smith said. "I really don't believe it."
Smith lowered her own junior world record in the morning preliminaries, finishing in 2:06.01.
WATCH | 17-year-old Smith speeds to 200 backstroke world record:
In the semifinals, she finished 3.22 seconds ahead of Kylie Masse of Canada, who was the second-fastest qualifier. Ruck, swimming about 15 minutes after the 100 freestyle final, led her semifinal for the first half and qualified in seventh at 2:08.42.
"It was a pretty incredible swim to be involved in," Masse said. "I thought I saw the board, and I was like 'whoa'. But it's great for [Smith] and it's an incredibly fast time and I think it will just push the field to go faster and faster."
The final is Saturday night.
In the men's 200 backstroke, Canada's Markus Thormeyer placed eighth at 1:58.50. Thormeyer was a last-minute entry into the semifinal after another swimmer dropped out, and set a Canadian record at a 1:56.96 to reach today's final.
"I'm happy with it, I wasn't even seeded to make the final," said Thormeyer. "It's an experience in the bag and I'm happy with what I've learned."
Russia's Evgeny Rylov won gold at 1:53.40, with American Ryan Murphy taking silver (1:54.12) and Britain's Luke Greenbank earning bronze (1:55.85).
Chupkov takes down another world record
Anton Chupkov of Russia broke the third world record of the day in the men's 200 breaststroke. He won gold in 2 minutes, 6.12 seconds, defending his title from two years ago in Budapest.
That lowered the mark of 2:06.67 that Matthew Wilson of Australia had tied in the semifinals a day earlier. Ippei Watanabe of Japan set the mark in January 2017 in Tokyo.
Chupkov was eighth after the first lap and moved up to fifth at 150 metres. He came home in 31.89 to overtake Wilson, who led from the start.
WATCH | Chupkov earns world record:
In the final event of the day, Mack Horton rallied Australia to victory in the men's 4x200 freestyle relay, putting them in front with a lap to go. Clyde Lewis, Kyle Chalmers, Alexander Graham and Horton won in 7:00.85.
Russia took silver in 7:01.81. The U.S. team of Andrew Seliskar, Blake Pieroni, Zach Apple and Townley Haas earned bronze in 7:01.98.
Sun Yang swam China's anchor leg against Horton, but he wasn't able to move his team up and they finished sixth in his final event at worlds.
Sun swept the 200 and 400 freestyles, winning the 200 via disqualification and beating Horton in the 400. Horton snubbed Sun on the podium because the Aussie is angry that FINA allowed him to compete this week while facing a career-threatening hearing involving a clash with drug testers.
Also in the relay for Britain was Duncan Scott, who snubbed Sun on the podium after the 200 free.
With files from The Associated Press