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Kylie Masse leads three more Canadians into semis at Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games –

TOKYO – Kylie Masse and Taylor Ruck began their chase for a second medal at these Olympic Games in Thursday evening heats qualifying third and sixth in the women’s 200-m backstroke as a trio of Canadians advanced to semifinal races.

Masse, the silver medallist in the 100 back earlier this week, clocked 2:08.23 for second in her heat behind top qualifier Kaylee McKeown of Australia who touched the wall in 2:08.18. Ruck, a member of Canada’s 4X100-m freestyle silver medal team, was also in that heat placing third and sixth overall in 2:08.87.

‘’Just doing what I need to do to get the first round and I felt pretty smooth,’’ said Masse, third at the worlds in 2019 in the 200 back. ‘’I’ll look back at the race and see what I can improve upon and get the best rest and recovery for the next step.’’

Masse and Ruck both train at the High Performance Centre-Ontario in Toronto.

‘’I’m pretty pleased with the race, this meet has been more downs than ups I’m just trying to keep my head in this last stretch of the Games,’’ said Ruck, a double bronze medalist at Rio 2016.

Joshua Liendo (HPC-Ontario) is headed to the semis in the men’s 100-m butterfly posting the ninth best time overall in 51.52 seconds. Caeleb Dressel of the U.S. was the fastest qualifier with an Olympic record 50.39.

‘’My turn wasn’t the way I wanted it but the time’s up there, I’m back in and that’s all that matters right now,’’ said Liendo, third in his heat. ‘’I was a little too close on that turn, shortened up and didn’t get around too fast. If I fix that turn that’s a lot of time.’’

In the women’s 800-m freestyle, Summer McIntosh (HPC-Ontario) set a personal best and national age group record 8:25.04 to win her heat and took 11th place overall. The top-eight advanced to the final.

It’s been an impressive week so far for the 14-year-old in her Olympic debut. She was fourth in the 400 free and helped Canada to fourth in the women’s 4X200-m freestyle relay earlier Thursday with a strong lead-off swim.

‘’I’m not super over the moon about my result,’’ said McIntosh, who beat her PB by over four seconds. ‘’The race went pretty well but I know I have more room to improve with many aspects like my turns and just overall a bit faster with my pace. But I’m still pretty happy with how it went after a quick turnaround from this morning.’’

Canada was 13th in the mixed 4X100-m medley relay clocking 3:46.54 with Javier Acevedo, Gabe Mastromatteo, Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith. The top-eight advanced to the final.

‘’I think we did a pretty good job’’ said Savard, at her third Olympic Games. ‘’We wanted to have fun, do our best but it wasn’t enough to make the final. Still, we should be happy about ourselves.’’

The semis and finals are at 9:30 p.m. (ET) tonight. Penny Oleksiak goes for a record-breaking medal in the women’s 100-m freestyle. She is currently tied with speedskater Cindy Klassen and speedskater/cyclist Clara Hughes as Canada’s most decorated Olympian at six medals.

Full schedule and results: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/swimming/olympic-schedule-and-results-date=2021-07-29.htm