Canada’s Maggie Mac Neil wins record-setting gold medal in 100m butterfly at World Cup in Toronto

Dozens of youngsters leaned over the gallery railing at Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, shouting to their swimming heroes, begging for an autograph.

“Maggie!” “Kylie!” “Penny!” “Summer!” “Sydney!”

The refrain of piping younger voices was at its loudest as Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., received the ladies’s 100-metre butterfly in 54.78 seconds on Sunday to set a World Cup report and break her personal Canadian report.

The reigning Olympic and world champion additionally completed the weekend as the general factors winner, with 58.5 factors.

“It makes me so proud,” stated the 22-year-old Mac Neil on the pool’s deck as kids known as to her. “I’m nonetheless sort of getting used to my position, however I’m hoping I’m doing everybody proud.

“It means a lot to have their help, and it has been nice to have them cheering in the group this weekend.”

WATCH | Mac Neil captures 100m butterfly gold:

Sweden’s Louise Hansson (55.02) and Brazil’s Giovanna Tomanik Diamante (57.41) rounded out the rostrum in the ladies’s 100-metre butterfly.

Katerine Savard (57.68) of Pont-Rouge, Que., was fourth.

Canada completed with 5 golds, 9 silvers and 7 bronze at the World Cup, second solely to the United States.

American Beata Nelson (2:00.50) took gold in the ladies’s 200-metre backstroke, with Canadians taking the subsequent three spots.

Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., earned silver in 2:02.21, Toronto’s Summer McIntosh (2:02.85) took bronze, and Calgary’s Ingrid Wilm completed simply off the rostrum in 2:02.94.

Masse is now fourth in the season’s total girls’s rankings. She hopes the occasion would encourage younger children to pursue their goals and see what they will obtain in swimming.

“I believe that is the last word objective,” stated Masse after signing swim caps, flutter boards, flags, and even winter coats. “It could be superb to see swimming in Canada be like hockey or like soccer or like baseball, basketball.

“I believe that is one thing that all of us hope for and hope that we will go away an affect and a legacy in this sport in order that swimming turns into extra fashionable in Canada.”

Nelson additionally received gold in the ladies’s 200m particular person medley in 2:05.08 to complete second in the weekend’s total girls’s rankings with 58.3 factors. Halifax’s Sydney Pickrem was second in 2:05.23, and McIntosh took her second medal of the day in 2:06.57.

Bailey Andison of Smiths Falls, Ont., was fourth, Winnipeg’s Kelsey Wog was fifth, Ashley McMillan of Penticton, B.C., was sixth, Ella Jansen of Burlington, Ont., was seventh and Mary-Sophie Harvey of Laval, Que., was eighth.

Pickrem educated at the power in Toronto’s east finish for practically 18 months throughout the heaviest days of the pandemic. She stated it was thrilling to lastly compete in entrance of Canadian followers and present how a lot Swimming Canada’s program has come in the previous 4 years.

“I believe it is superb for Canada to see this excessive stage of competitors,” she stated after signing autographs. “To know that Canada is in it and we’ve been for the previous couple of years and it is simply actually cool to carry it residence for them.”

Other notable Canadian outcomes included Toronto’s Javier Acevedo taking fourth in the lads’s 100-metre backstroke, Josh Liendo of Markham, Ont., ending sixth in the lads’s 50-metre butterfly, Sophie Angus putting seventh in the ladies’s 50-metre breaststroke, and Mac Neil swimming to fifth in the ladies’s 100-metre freestyle.

Indianapolis will host the subsequent World Cup cease from Nov. 3-5.

WATCH | FINA Swimming World Cup in Toronto – Day 3 night session: 

FINA Swimming World Cup 2022 Toronto: Day 3 night session

Watch night motion from the third day of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2022 from Toronto.