Canada's Kylie Masse, Ingrid Wilm advance to 100m backstroke semifinals at aquatics worlds
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Canada's Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm both advanced to the women's 100-metre backstroke semifinals on the second day of swimming competition at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Masse, 27, of Lasalle, Ont., and Calgary's Wilm, 25, secured their spots in the qualifying heats to open the Monday morning events at the Marine Messe Fukuoka.
Masse finished with the fourth-best time among the 61 competitors, touching the wall in 59.14 seconds. Wilm's 59.96 mark was good enough for ninth-best.
American Regan Smith, who won the event last year and owns the world championship record, 57.57 in 2019, had the fastest time at 58.47. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the event's two semifinals.
The semifinals are scheduled for Monday at 7:53 a.m. ET, with the medal round set for Tuesday at 7:51 a.m. ET.
Reigning Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil will go for gold in the women's 100m butterfly final on Monday at 7:09 a.m. ET.
Other Monday action includes the Canadian women's water polo team facing the Netherlands at 3:30 a.m. ET for a spot in the semifinals. The Canadian men play Croatia in a classification match at 11 p.m. ET.
The other Canadian swimmers who hit the pool in Monday's morning session failed to advance.
Edmonton's Emma Finlin posted a time of 16:15.77 to finish twelfth in the women's 1,500m freestyle heats, but only the top eight moved straight to the final.
Scarborough, Ont., native Javier Acevedo, 25, failed to qualify for the men's 100m backstroke semifinals, posting the 26th-best time (54.58) in the prelims to finish 0.64 seconds shy of the cut-off mark.
Toronto's Sophie Angus, 24, didn't make the women's 100m breaststroke semifinals, missing the cut with the 22nd-fastest time (1:07.34). She was 0.47 seconds slower than the 16th-ranked and final athlete to advance.
The World Aquatics Championships run through Sunday.
