By Canadian Press

Canadian swimmer Sydney Pickrem picks up second bronze at world championships

Jul 28, 2019 | 6:25 AM

GWANGJU, Korea, Republic Of — Canadian swimmer Sydney Pickrem captured her second bronze medal at the 2019 world aquatics championships, tying a record for the country.

The Canadian/U.S. dual citizen came third in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke on Friday, finishing in 2 minutes 22.90 seconds.

It was Canada’s sixth medal — two gold and four bronze — at the pool in the meet, equalling a record for the country set in 1978. Canada has two more days of competition to try to break the record.

Pickrem was competing in the 200 breaststroke for the first time at worlds.

“I wanted to try as much as I could to get on the podium,” said Pickrem, who also won bronze in the 200-metre individual medley this week. “It’s not the time that I wanted but it was better than semis so I’m just moving forward.

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“There’s a lot of fast swimming here and that motivates you whether it’s your (main) event or not.”

Yuliya Efimova of Russia won gold in 2:20.17 for a record third title, while South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker was second in 2:22.52, becoming the first swimmer from her country to win a medal at the worlds. Winnipeg’s Kelsey Wog finished sixth.

It was Efimova’s 14th individual world medal, tying her with Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Sjostrom for most among women.

Pickrem, who also won 400-metre IM bronze in 2017, is the first Canadian female swimmer with three individual world medals in her career.

Meanwhile, Simone Manuel wasn’t swimming up to her standards, and she felt her relay anchor leg that resulted in a silver medal for the U.S. proved it.

Then she remembered it’s always about bouncing back.

Manuel did just that in the 100 freestyle, winning her second straight title at the world championships.

Relegated to Lane 1 with the slowest qualifying time, the American led all the way and touched first in 52.04 seconds, beating Cate Campbell of Australia by 0.39 seconds.

Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., was fifth.

“Not everybody has a perfect swim every time so I just needed to regroup and put on a good face,” Manuel said. “I’m a veteran on the team, so I have to be able to show a little bit of poise in these hard moments.”

Manuel was unable to hold off Campbell on the anchor leg of the 4×100 free relay earlier in the meet, with Australia claiming gold and the U.S. silver.

“I did take that relay really hard because I didn’t feel like I did as best as I possibly could,” Manuel said.

She made up for it in the 100 free.

Manuel was the only woman under 25 seconds on the opening lap. She knocked 1.27 seconds off her time from the morning semifinals that landed her in the far outside lane.

Manuel became the second woman to win multiple titles in the 100 free, joining Kornelia Ender of the former East Germany, who won in 1973 and ’75.

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, the world-record holder, took bronze.

In 2016, Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming gold at the Olympics when she tied Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak for gold in Rio de Janeiro.

In the men’s 200-metre backstroke, Markus Thormeyer of Tsawwassen, B.C., was eighth.

“I’m happy with it, I wasn’t even seeded to make the final,” said Thormeyer, who set a Canadian record in the semis on Thursday. “It’s an experience in the bag and I’m happy with what I’ve learned.”

Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., and Ruck both qualified for Saturday’s 200-metre women’s backstroke final by placing second and seventh in the semis, respectively.

Oleksiak also qualified for a final in the women’s 50-metre butterfly after she tied for sixth in the semis.

Two more world records fell in semifinals at the hands of Americans.

Caeleb Dressel broke Michael Phelps’ record in the 100 butterfly and Regan Smith lowered the mark in the 200 backstroke.

Dressel won his heat in 49.50 seconds — 0.32 seconds better than Phelps’ mark set at the 2009 world meet in Rome at the height of the high-tech suit era.

Dressel was out in 22.83 seconds — 0.53 seconds under Phelps’ pace — and came home in 26.67 to lead eight men into Saturday’s final.

He was a whopping 1.44 seconds ahead of Andrei Minakov of Russia, the second-quickest qualifier.

Smith, who is 17, won her semifinal heat in 2:03.35. That erased the old mark of 2:04.06 set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics.

“I’m in shock,” Smith said. “I really don’t believe it.”

She lowered her own junior world record in the morning preliminaries, finishing in 2:06.01.

Smith goes into Saturday’s final 3.22 seconds ahead of Masse.

— with files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An incorrect Canadian medal total was listed in a previous version