By Canadian Press

Canadians Liendo, Masse reach event finals at world aquatics championships

Jul 28, 2023 | 10:27 AM

FUKUOKA, Japan — Josh Liendo qualified for two finals while Kylie Masse advanced to the women’s 200-metre backstroke final Friday at the World Aquatics Championships.

Liendo, from Toronto, advanced to the men’s 100-metre butterfly after finishing third in qualifying.

He also snuck into the 50-metre freestyle final in eighth, but elected not to swim that race to focus on the 100 fly on Saturday.

“I’ve done doubles multiple times and want to keep getting better at it as my career progresses,’’ said Liendo, 20. “I’m just having fun and racing hard.”

Masse, from LaSalle, Ont., reached Saturday’s women’s 200 backstroke final, marking the second straight worlds she’s qualified for the final in all three backstroke distances.

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Canada had one finalist in action on Friday as Kelsey Wog of Winnipeg placed eighth in the women’s 200 breaststroke in two minutes 25.21 seconds.

Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa won in 2:20.80, Kate Douglass of the United States was second in 2:21.23 and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands was third in 2:21.63.

“I definitely would have liked to be a bit faster but it’s always a good experience being in a final,” Wog said. “I definitely want to be placing higher in the final in the future.”

Liendo started his evening winning his semifinal heat and ranking third overall in the men’s 100 butterfly to qualify for Saturday’s final in 50.75 seconds.  

Dare Rose of the U.S. topped the field at 50.53 followed by Maxime Grousset of France at 50.62

Ilya Kharun of Montreal, who set a Canadian record while finishing fourth in the men’s 200 butterfly earlier this week, missed the cut by 0.05 seconds.

“I guess it was fine because I dropped (my time), but definitely disappointing getting ninth place,’’ said Kharun, 18. ‘’I’ve definitely got to get faster that’s for sure. I’m happy for Josh that he made it to the final, hopefully he gets into that top-three.”

About 30 minutes later, Liendo snuck into the 50 free final ranking eighth in 21.88, making the cut by 0.03 seconds.

In the women’s 200 backstroke, Masse reached her third final of the week qualifying fifth in 2:08.51. 

“I got the job done, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow night and hopefully improving on that,’’ said Masse, an eight-time world championship medallist (including relays) in addition to her four Olympic medals.

Masse, who was fourth in the 100 and 50 earlier in the week, has reached the final in 10 of 11 races in backstroke events over the last four world championships. The last swimmer to reach all three women’s backstroke finals at two straight worlds was Australian Emily Seebohm in 2015 and 2017.

Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., was 12th in the women’s 50 fly semifinal.

In the morning preliminaries, Canada’s men’s 4×200 freestyle relay team — Ruslan Gaziev of Toronto, Patrick Hussey of Beaconsfield, Que., Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., and Javier Acevedo of Toronto — ranked 12th in 7:10.67.

Emma Finlin of Edmonton was 18th in the women’s 800 freestyle.

Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., the silver medallist in the 100 butterfly Monday, ranked 19th in the 50 fly prelims in 26.33.
 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2023.

The Canadian Press