Canada's Maggie Mac Neil captures world silver in women's 100m butterfly
CBC
Canadian Maggie Mac Neil raced to a silver medal in the women's 100-metre butterfly at the World Aquatics Championships on Monday in Fukuoka, Japan.
Mac Neil, the reigning Olympic champion, finished in 56.45 seconds.
China's Zhang Yufei rallied over the final 15 metres, capturing the gold medal in 56.12, while American and 2022 world champion Torri Huske earned bronze with a time of 56.61.
Mac Neil, who grew up in London, Ont., was behind the leaders but used a powerful turn and kick at 50 metres to propel into the lead.
Mac Neil looked strong with about 25 remaining, but started to fade a little bit, allowing Zhang the time to touch the wall in first.
"The last 25 [metres] hurt so bad," Mac Neil admitted to CBC Sports reporter Devin Heroux. "It's always good to be back on the world stage. Clearly I have work to but I'm exiting [for future competitions]. Hopefully there's some things to work on for next year. I'm more happy with second place than the time."
Mac Neil won the 2019 world title in this event Doha, Qatar.
She opted out of the individual events at the world championships in 2022 for mental health reasons, participating only in relays.
"I think it was really important taking the space and being able to be a relay-only swimmer definitely gave me a different perspective on the sport,'' she said.
''Being able to come back and get my confidence up and win my first Commonwealth Games gold medal was another really important step for me. So overall I'm really happy with the decisions that I made. And I'm definitely going towards next year now."
A year culminating in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
WATCH l Mac Neil earns silver medal:
The women's race was a repeat of the final two years ago at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. The top four finishers in Tokyo were separated by only 14-100ths of a second. That race went to MacNeil, followed by Zhang and Australian swimmer Emma McKeon. Huske was 1-100th behind McKeon and missed out on a medal.
Two Canadians will be competing in the women's 100 backstroke final on Tuesday.
