Canadian teenager Josh Liendo is back on the podium at worlds.
Liendo’s latest medal marks Canada’s eighth of the meet, tying a national record set in 2019.
Hungary’s Kristof Milak dominated the race in front of his home crowd, flirting with the world record before winning gold in 50.14 seconds. Japan’s Naoki Mizunuma took silver in 50.94 seconds, just three one-hundredths of a second ahead of Liendo.
Liendo, 19, stormed back in the second 50 metres after reaching the halfway point out of medal position. His split time in the back half of the race only trailed Milak and Mizunuma.
WATCH | Liendo bursts to bronze in 100m butterfly:
Josh Liendo of Markham, Ont., won bronze in the men’s 100-metre butterfly at the FINA world championships in Budapest on Friday, just two days after capturing his first career world championship medal by taking bronze in the 100-metre freestyle. Liendo’s latest medal marks Canada’s eighth of the meet, tying a national record set in 2019.
Just over 30 minutes earlier, Liendo missed out on another potential medal by just 0.04 seconds, placing fifth in the 50 freestyle.
The Canadian qualified with the third-fastest time at 21.73 seconds, and improved to 21.61 seconds in the final.
Yet he was left on the outside looking in, as Benjamin Proud of the U.K. won gold in 21.32 seconds, American Michael Andrew scored silver in 21.41 seconds and France’s Maxime Grousset snuck into the bronze-medal position at 21.57 seconds.
Liendo is also scheduled to swim a third race Friday at 1:49 p.m. ET as part of Canada’s team in the final of the mixed 4×100 relay.
WATCH | Live coverage of swimming finals from Budapest:
The 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships will be taking place in Budapest, Hungary.
Masse falls short
Meanwhile, Kylie Masse fell short in her bid for a third medal in Hungary and the record-breaking eighth of her career.
Masse, who won silver in the 200 backstroke at the Tokyo Olympics, placed fifth in the discipline and well off the podium in a time of two minutes eight seconds.
The 26-year-old from LaSalle, Ont., started among the leaders, touching after the first 50 metres in third place. But she continually slowed from there, even falling from fourth into fifth during the final length in the pool.
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown won gold in 2:05.08, while Americans Phoebe Bacon and Rhyan White took silver and bronze in 2:05.12 and 2:06.96, respectively.
It’ll still go down as a successful worlds for Masse, who won her first career gold medal in the 50 backstroke and took silver in the 100 backstroke.
She remains tied with Penny Oleksiak as the most decorated Canadian swimmers at the world championships with seven podium appearances apiece.
WATCH | The significance of Lane 4:
Athletes are assigned different lanes in a swim final and where they are placed can give insight into who stacks up against who. Jacqueline Doorey explains.
Alvarez out of competition
Anita Alvarez, the American artistic swimmer who was rescued by her coach after fainting in the pool on Thursday, did not participate in the team event on Friday.
FINA, the sport’s governing body, said “she should not compete” in light of the incident.
“The health and safety of athletes must always come first. While FINA understands why this decision will have been disappointing to the athlete, it was a decision that was made with her best interests in mind.”
The American team doctor had said she was “very confident” Alvarez would have been OK to compete.
WATCH | Swimmer saved by U.S. coach after fainting in pool:
Coach Andrea Fuentes dove in after artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez after the American fainted during her performance and sank to the bottom of the pool.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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