Katerine Savard and her teammates climbed to the third step of the podium at the end of the women’s 4 x 100 m freestyle final disputed on Tuesday, as a curtain raiser to the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
What’s more, the Canadian quartet, made up of Savard, Rebecca Smith, Taylor Ruck and Maggie Mac Neil, achieved a Canadian record with a time of 3 min 28.06 s in this toughest race.
It was ultimately the Australians who won, completing the distance in 3 min 25.43 s to obtain gold, a world record. At the same time, they dethroned the Canadians and the Americans, tied for first at the 2021 worlds.
Note that the representatives of the United States this time finished second (3 min 26.29 s).
Earlier in the day, Savard teamed up with Mary-Sophie Harvey, Smith and Ruck for qualifying. The Maple Leaf swimmers then secured their place for the grand final by finishing second, behind the Australians.
Savard and Harvey also took part in individual events during this first day of activities of the short course worlds.
In action in the 50 butterfly, Savard, of Quebec City, started her day by setting a provincial record over the distance, stopping the clock at 25.50 seconds in qualifying. All this allowed him to reach the semi-finals, where his time of 25.81 s gave him 16e overall rank.
For his part, Harvey just missed qualifying for the final in the 200m individual medley. The Trifluvienne finished ninth (2 min 7.41 s) in the preliminary phase, 0.16 seconds from the eighth and last place giving access to the ultimate race.
The two Quebec athletes will be back in the pool on Wednesday to compete in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. Savard will also be in action in the women’s 100m freestyle qualifier.