World Swimming Championships | Penny Oleksiak and Joshua Liendo help Canada set medal record

(Budapest) Penny Oleksiak and Joshua Liendo gave Canada a record medal haul at the World Aquatic Championships.

Oleksiak of Toronto won a Canadian record eighth career medal and Liendo of Markham, Ont., added two medals on a busy day of three finals. As a result, Canada set a record nine medals (two gold, four silver, three bronze) with a final day of competition to come in Budapest, Hungary.

In the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay, Liendo started the event and Oleksiak completed the final relay, after which Canada secured the silver medal.

Oleksiak’s medal tally at the world championships — two silver and six bronze — puts her ahead of teammate Kylie Masse at the top among Canadian swimmers.

Javier Acevedo and Kayla Sanchez, both of Toronto, are the other members of the Canadian relay, which completed the race in three minutes and 20.61 seconds.

Australia improved the world record for this event. Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madison Wilson and Mollie O’Callaghan clocked 3:19.38, slashing two hundredths from the previous record set by the United States at the last worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2019.

A hat-trick for Liendo

The relay capped off a busy day for Liendo, who now has three medals at these championships. He picked up his second earlier in the evening, a bronze medal in the men’s 100-metre butterfly.

The Ontarian finished the event in 50.97 seconds, just three hundredths of a second behind the silver medalist, Japan’s Naoki Mizunuma.

Home favorite Kristof Milak of Hungary easily won gold in 50.14 seconds.

Liendo started his day competing in the 50-metre freestyle, where he finished fifth in 21.61 seconds — 0.04 seconds behind bronze medalist Maxime Grousset.

Britain’s Benjamin Proud (21.32) won gold and American Michael Andrew (21.41) silver.

Ontario’s Kylie Masse finished fifth in the women’s 200-metre backstroke in two minutes and eight seconds. Masse, who won silver in the event at the Tokyo Games, was third halfway through before the leaders pulled away.

Australian Kaylee McKeown won in 2:05.08, followed by Americans Phoebe Bacon (2:05.12) and Rhyan White (2:06.96).

Masse won the 50-metre backstroke and silver in the 100 backstroke earlier this week, giving her a total of seven career World Championship medals, tied with Penny Oleksiak for the lead among Canadian swimmers.

Ledecky adds to his list

In addition, Katie Ledecky added to her medal record at the Worlds with the conquest of a 22^e thanks to his victory in the 800 meters freestyle.

Ledecky clocked 8:08.04, winning the event for the eighth consecutive time at the World Championships or Olympic Games.

She finished more than 10 seconds ahead of her rivals. Australian Kiah Melverton conceded 10.73 seconds for second and Italian Simona Quadarella 10.96 for third.

Ledecky was within four seconds of the world record she set at the 2016 Olympics.

It’s his 19^e gold medal at the World Championships and his fourth this week. She helped the United States win the 4x200m freestyle relay final on Wednesday, two days after winning the 1,500m freestyle, two days after winning the 400m freestyle as the competition’s curtain raiser in Budapest.

Ledecky has the most medals for a swimmer in World Championship history. Only Michael Phelps, who has won 26, has more.