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Defending the podium is the hardest thing in sports.
Hilary Caldwell of Victoria, the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke, placed sixth at the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships in Budapest.
As an indication of how swiftly things move forward in international sport, Caldwell bettered her time from the Rio Olympics, but fell three placings.
The Saanich Commonwealth Place swimmer was 2:07.54 in medalling at Rio and 2:07.15 for sixth place Saturday.
Caldwell was in third place on the last turn, but could not hold.
鈥淚t was pretty painful. I didn鈥檛 quite have it in me to close the way some of the other girls did,鈥� Caldwell said in a statement. 鈥淚t was a fast final. I鈥檓 satisfied with the results. I would have liked to be on the podium, of course, but it was a good swim in a pretty cool environment, so I can鈥檛 complain.鈥�
Helping account for that noisy environment was that home-nation Hungarian swimming star Katinka Hosszu was in the 200-metre backstroke final. Emily Seebohm of Australia successfully defended her Rio Olympics gold medal by winning worlds gold in 2:05.68, with Hosszu second in 2:05.85 and Kathleen Baker of the United States third in 2:06.48. Kylie Masse of Windsor, Ont., was fifth in 2:07:04.
鈥淭he chance to have two Canadians on the podium in the 200 backstroke is incredible,鈥� Caldwell said before the meet.
But that proved a dream too far. However, it was a stunning meet for Masse, just the same. The 21-year-old set the Canadian record of 2:05.97 in qualifying Friday, breaking the old standard of 2:06.88 set by Caldwell in winning bronze at the 2013 world championships. Masse set the world record earlier in winning the women鈥檚 100-metre backstroke and is a rising force.
鈥淸Masse鈥檚 success] is lighting a fire in me to be faster,鈥� 26-year-old veteran Caldwell said.
sa国际传媒 won bronze Saturday in the mixed 4x100 freestyle relay with a team of Penny Oleksiak, Yuri Kisil, Chantal Van Landeghem and Javier Acevedo. sa国际传媒 has six medals, three from swimming and three from diving, at the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships.
The 2017 Claremont graduate Mackenzie Padington, an 18-year-old native of Campbell River who is headed in the fall to swim in the NCAA Big Ten for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, was a credible 16th as a world championships rookie in the women鈥檚 800 metres. St. Michaels University School graduate Jeremy Bagshaw, who medalled in the NCAA Pac-12 for the Cal-Berkeley Bears, placed 14th with the Canadian 4x200-metre relay team Saturday.
Earlier, in the open-water events of the world meet, there were three Victoria racers, with 2012 London Olympics bronze-medallist Richard Weinberger 23rd in the 10K, 2013 world championships silver-medallist Eric Hedlin 14th in the 5K and three-time Olympian Stephanie Horner 28th in the women鈥檚 10K.
The championships conclude today.
