Masse cruises through prelims in first
Swimming Canada – BUDAPEST, Hungary – Kylie Masse of Windsor, Ont., took her first step towards a medal Monday at FINA World Championships, and will be one of seven Canadians in action later today in Budapest, Hungary.
Masse was one of five Canadians who progressed to semifinals Monday morning. They will join Sydney Pickrem and Penny Oleksiak, who will be racing in finals.
After Pickrem advanced third in the 200-m individual medley, and Oleksiak fifth in the 100-m butterfly through Sunday’s semifinals, Masse moved on in first place in the 100-metre backstroke Monday. The 21-year-old Olympic bronze medallist posted a prelims time of 58.62 seconds, ahead of Hungarian Katinka Hosszu and Australian Emily Seebohm.
“There’s still a lot of racing left to do, but it was really nice to get in prelims and go that time. I felt pretty good so I’m looking forward to tonight.”
Masse holds the fastest time in the world this year, after going 58.21 at the Canadian Swimming Trials in April.
Hilary Caldwell, of the High Performance Centre – Victoria, also progressed in the 100-m backstroke. Her time of 1:00.37 puts her 13th going into tonight’s semifinals.
Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., and Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C., moved on in the 100-m breaststroke. Nicol swam a 1:07.10 while Smith clocked 1:07.43, good for 8th and 15th seeds in the semifinals.
“It felt harder than the time reflected, but that’s okay, I get another shot at it tonight. It’s a solid swim for the morning, I’m just glad I get to do it again” said Nicol. “Tonight I just want to go faster than this morning.”
Javier Acevedo of Scarborough, Ont., advanced to the semifinals in the 100-m backstroke. The 19-year-old is seeded 15th after a 54.43 in prelims.
“This morning felt pretty comfortable. I added a bit to my best time, but I got through and that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting out there tonight and racing my heart out for a finals spot.”
Olivia Anderson of Mississauga, Ont. swam the 1500-m freestyle in 16:34.50 for 14th place.
Markus Thormeyer of HPC – Vancouver finished 44th in the 200-m freestyle after a 1:50.23 in heats.
Finals at the FINA World Championships in Budapest begin at 11:30 am ET and will be streamed live by CBC at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olymhttp://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/aquaticspics/summer/aquatics
Full results are available at http://omegatiming.com/Competition?id=000111010AFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&day=2