RIO DE JANEIRO – The Canadian women’s 4×200-metre freestyle relay team won bronze at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday night.
Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., B.C.-born Taylor Ruck of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Brittany MacLean and Penny Oleksiak, both of Toronto, finished the race in seven minutes 45.39 seconds.
The United States won gold in 7:43.03, followed by Australia in 7:44.87.
READ MORE: Canada’s newest swimming phenom Penny Oleksiak sets Canadian record at Rio
It’s Canada’s sixth medal of the Games and fourth in swimming.
Canada opened its medal haul with bronze in the 4×100 relay. Oleksiak – who along with Ruck were on the 4×100 medal winning foursome – added a silver in the 100 butterfly and Kylie Masse won bronze in 100 backstroke.
The Canadian team made two changes from Wednesday morning’s qualifying race for evening relay.
Savard and Ruck were part of the earlier qualifying team for the race but Emily Overholt of West Vancouver, B.C., and Kennedy Goss of Toronto made up the other two. They qualified sixth with a time of 7:51.99 seconds.
Canada was fourth in the event at the 2012 London Games.
The 16-year-old Oleksiak had a busy night, also qualifying for the women’s 100 freestyle final with a Canadian record and world junior record time of 52.72 seconds, 0.01 seconds off first place Cate Campbell of Australia, who set an Olympic record. The final goes Thursday night.
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Canada’s Santo Condorelli wasn’t so lucky. The Kenora, Ont., product narrowly missed the podium – by 0.03 seconds – in the men’s 100-metre freestyle. Condorelli touched the wall in a personal best 47.88. Australia’s Kyle Chalmers won gold in 47.58, Belgium’s Pieter Timmers took silver in 47.80 and American Nathan Adrian earned bronze in 47.85.
Kierra Smith, 22, of Kelowna, B.C., is heading to Thursday’s 200-metre breaststroke final, qualifying eighth in 2:22.87 in the semi.
Veteran Martha McCabe of Toronto took the final swim of her career, placing 23rd in the 200-metre breaststroke heats in 2:28.62. The 27-year-old was a 2011 world championships bronze medallist and was fifth at the 2012 London Games.
Winnipeg’s Chantal Van Landeghem placed 10th overall in the 100-metre freestyle semifinal and did not advance.
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