Star swimmer Oleksiak sixth in 100-metre freestyle at world championships

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Star Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak won’t have a world title to go with her Olympic gold in the 100-metre freestyle but she and teammate Kylie Masse smashed more national records at the FINA world championships Friday.

After finishing sixth in the 100 freestyle in 52.94 seconds, Oleksiak went on to break the Canadian record in the 50-metre butterfly semifinal with a time of 25.66.

“It felt pretty good,” said the 17-year-old from Toronto, who qualified fourth. “I think I have to be more playful and fun going into the 50 fly. All my other events I take super seriously and I have a whole plan going into them, but this one is literally put your head down and try to get to the wall first.”

Simone Manuel of the United States, who tied Oleksiak for Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, captured the 100 free world title with a time 52.27.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was second in 52.31 and Pernille Blume was third in 52.69.

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“It hurt a lot the last 20 metres but overall it was a pretty good race,” Oleksiak said. “I’ve had kind of a difficult year so I think being able to get around my best was pretty good.”

Oleksiak’s Rio time of 52.70 is a world junior record.

Meanwhile, Masse continued her impressive performance at the competition, breaking her fifth national record of the meet.

The backstroker from LaSalle, Ont., who already has a gold medal and world mark under her belt after winning the 100 earlier in the week, broke the Canadian record in the 200 metres with a time of 2:05.97.

Only Australian Emily Seebohm, the defending world champion, was faster in 2:05.81. Both times would have been good for gold in Rio last summer.

“I could see that it was close,” said Masse. “I saw the scoreboard at one point. I knew it was going to be a tight finish but I did the best I could to get my hand the wall as fast as possible.”

It was the fifth national record this week for Masse.

Caldwell qualified eighth.

Masse, swimming at her first long-course worlds, said she’s looking forward to swimming alongside her veteran teammate.

“Hilary is an amazing friend and extremely talented backstroker and someone I look up to a lot,” said Masse, a bronze medallist at the Rio Olympics. “I know she’s going to have a good final.”

In the women’s 200-metre breaststroke final, Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C., finished fifth with a personal-best time of 2:22.23.

“I’m not happy with that,” said Smith. “It’s great to get a best time though, I haven’t gotten one since 2015 in that event. I can’t tell you how bad I wanted a medal and I’m not sure what I could improve on looking back at it right now.”

The Canadian Press