Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., touched the wall second in 58.40 seconds in an unsuccessful bid for a third straight world title in the women’s 100-metre backstroke on Monday at the FINA world aquatics championships in Budapest, Hungary.
American Regan Smith won in 58.22 after posting fastest qualifying time in 57.65. At last summer’s Olympics, Masse won silver ahead of Smith, who took bronze.
Claire Curzan, Smith’s teammate, was third on Monday in 58.67.
Masse, 26, had a strong start to the race, posting the fastest reaction time of 0.53 to Smith’s 0.55.
The American swimmer led Masse by 6-100ths of a second through 50 metres and held on for the victory.
Masse, the reigning Olympic silver medallist, clocked the second-fastest time in Sunday’s preliminaries and semifinals, winning her heat in 58.89 in the morning and 58.57 in the evening.
WATCH | Masse has had ‘killer instinct’ in pool since childhood:
She’s one of swimming’s elite backstrokers, and It’s her fierce competitiveness that pushes Kylie Masse to want to be the best.
In other action, seven-time Olympic medallist Penny Oleksiak of Toronto was disqualified in the women’s 200 freestyle semifinals for starting too quick off the blocks.
Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., qualified sixth of 15 athletes in 1:56.80 for Tuesday’s final.
On Saturday, Oleksiak and Ruck teamed with Maggie Mac Neil and Kayla Sanchez to win 100 relay silver on the opening day of competition.
They swam to a time of 3:31.15, 1.2 seconds behind Australia, and ahead of the Americans who were 1.63 seconds behind.
Coverage continues Monday afternoon, with races live streamed at CBC Sports.ca, CBC Sports App and CBC Gem.
WATCH | Oleksiak drives Canadian women to silver in 100-metre relay:
The group of Maggie Mac Neil, Taylor Ruck, Kayla Sanchez and Penny Oleksiak finished with a time of 3:31.15 to place 2nd in the competition at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Ceccon sets world mark in men’s 100 backstroke
Italy’s Thomas Ceccon has set a world record in the men’s 100 backstroke.
He clocked 51.60 seconds on Monday in Budapest to shave 0.15 seconds off the previous best record by American Ryan Murphy from the 2016 Olympics.
Ceccon is the second Italian man to set a world record in long course swimming after Giorgio Lambert, who held the record in the men’s 200 freestyle from 1989-99.
At 21, Ceccon is also the youngest gold medallist in the men’s 100 backstroke at a worlds since the then-19-year-old Aaron Piersol of the United States won in 2003.
Ledecky dominates women’s 1,500
American Katie Ledecky dominated the women’s 1,500 freestyle event to claim her second gold medal at these worlds.
Ledecky, who won the women’s 400 event on the opening day, cruised to the gold medal with a time of 15 minutes 30.15 seconds.
The 25-year-old finished more than 14 seconds ahead of compatriot Katie Grimes who took the silver while Australia’s Lani Pallister earned bronze.
“I love this pool, I knew I put in the work to have a good swim and got into a rhythm,” Ledecky said.
“I’ve got the relay, that’s next on the agenda and then I will tackle the 800m. We’ll see [if I can get a record].”
Elsewhere on Monday:
- Romanian teenager David Popovici smashed the world junior record as he powered to victory to take gold in the men’s 200 free. The 17-year-old became the first male Romanian swimmer to win gold at the world championships as he finished with a time of 1:43.21.
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