Canada wins bronze in women's 4x100m freestyle relay

By Benjamin Blum, CBC Sports

Canada's women's 4x100-metre freestyle relay team won bronze in the final on Saturday.

Sandrine Mainville, Chantal van Landeghem, Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak swam for Canada, finishing with a time of three minutes 32.89 seconds.​ The team was strong throughout the relay, but received an additional push from the teenage tandem of Ruck and Oleksiak on the back end of the race.

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The bronze is the first women's swimming medal for Canada since Marianne Limpert won silver in the 200-metre individual medley at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. As well, this is the first medal for Canada in the 4x100 free relay since Becky Smith, Gail Amundrud, Barbara Clark and Anne Jardin won bronze at the 1976 Games in Montreal.

Michelle Williams, who swam in the heat earlier on Saturday, was despondent when she learned she wouldn't swim in final. Oleksiak took Williams's place in the event. However, Williams was elated for her teammates and received a medal for her efforts in the preliminary heat.

"We've come a long way, this group of us," Williams told CBC's David Amber after the medal ceremony. "It's our medal and it's our medal for Canada, it's just so amazing."

Australia set a world record to capture the gold medal in 3:30.65; the United States took the silver medal with a time of 3:31.89.

"We belong here and we belong on that podium," van Landeghem said. "I'm just so excited right now, I'm so proud of these girls and I hope we made Canada proud tonight."

While the entire team appeared ecstatic over the win, their excitement was dwarfed by the outpouring of emotion from CBC analyst and three-time Olympic medallist Mark Tewksbury.

Oleksiak makes 100m butterfly finals

Oleksiak also advanced to the Olympic 100-metre butterfly final on Saturday.

The 16-year-old from Toronto qualified after finishing third in the second semifinal with a time of 57.10 seconds.

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Oleksiak was in fifth place heading into the final lap before using her explosive speed to close the gap and move on to Sunday's final.

Hungarian swimmer sets 400 IM record

Hungary's Katinka Hosszu shattered the world record en route to winning Olympic gold in the women's 400 individual medley on Saturday in Rio. Hosszu's time of 4:26.36 seconds outpaced the previous record by more than two seconds.

U.S. swimmer Maya Dirado and Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia won silver and bronze, respectively. Canadian swimmer Emily Overholt, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury, finished fifth.

"There was a lot this year that didn't exactly go in my favour," Overholt told CBC's David Amber after the race. "It was hard but it just makes that race so much more special for me." 

"I'm so excited to go find my family after this," she said. "I have one more race tomorrow and then I'm done racing and I just get to enjoy this whole experience, so I'm really excited"

Men's 400 IM

The American domination of the men's 400 IM is over.

Japan's Kosuke Hagino survived a late push from U.S. swimmer Chase Kalisz to win gold in the event. Hagino snaps the United States's streak of five consecutive Olympic golds, including two from Michael Phelps and one from Ryan Lochte.

Hagino, the bronze medallist at the 2012 Games, won with a time of four minutes 6.05 seconds to capture the first swimming gold of the Rio Olympics.

Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto earned bronze.

Men's 400 free

Australia's Mack Horton edged defending gold medallist Sun Yang to win the men's 400 freestyle swimming final. Horton edged the decorated Chinese Olympian by less than a second to win the event.

Italy's Gabriele Detti earned bronze, the first men's swimming medal for the country since 2000.

With files from Reuters and The Associated Press