Mac Neil, known for controlling the first 50m and being very quick in the underwater throw after the corner, stuck to her usual racing strategy on lane 3, crashing into the wall midway through the race in third place. An impressive throw nearly 14m underwater after the corner gave her a brief lead in the race, but she was unable to maintain pace and distance, fending off Zhang’s comeback with a drag in the final meters.

“It’s good to break the ice with a first race and I’m really happy with a second place so I’ll focus on the relays now,” he explained Mac Neil to CBC reporter Devin Héroux.

This returns Mac Neil to the world podium at this event after skipping individual events at the 2022 edition to prioritize his mental health.

This medal is Mac Neil’s seventh career medal at the World Swimming Championships. In her first appearance at the 2019 World Championships, she was crowned world champion in the 100m butterfly, where she also won two medals in relay events. He won his other three career medals in the relay in 2022.

Mac Neil is Canada’s first swimming medalist at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. Canada won two bronze medals in diving, those of Caeli McKay and Pamela Ware.

In the first session of the swim final, Summer McIntosh placed fourth in the women’s 400 m freestyle, missing the podium by 0.35 seconds. This race was highly anticipated as the event pitted the three fastest swimmers in history against each other. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, the reigning Olympic champion, reclaimed the world record with a time of 3 minutes 55.38 seconds, beating the world record set by McInstosh at the Canadian Trials in March by 0.70 seconds. American middle distance star Katie Ledecky won the silver medal, her 23rd career medal at a World Championships. New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather narrowly beat McIntosh at the wall to take bronze.

“Not every race can be a 10 out of 10,” said McIntosh, a silver medalist at last year’s World Championships. I will use today’s race to learn over the next few days and prepare for the Olympic Games. »

McIntosh was back in the pool an hour later as she swam the first leg of the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay with Mac Neil, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Taylor Ruck. The Canadians finished seventh with a time of 3:36.62. In the men’s event, the Canadians finished fifth in the 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 3:12.05, a fine performance by Josh Liendo, Ruslan Gaziev, Finlay Knox and Javier Acevedo.

The medal-winning teams from these two relays have secured their Olympic quota places for Paris 2024. The times achieved by the Canadian quartets will now be compared to those achieved at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in February to determine the 13 other countries who will complete the sixteen spots available at each of those Paris 2024 events.

On Tuesday Canada will have two swimmers in the 100m backstroke final as Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm both qualified. Masse could win a fourth consecutive medal at World Championships in this event.