Canadian swimmer Josh Liendo units brief course world document in 100m butterfly

Josh Liendo arrived at Pan Am Sports Centre on Thursday with many fond recollections of his hometown pool.

It’s the place the 23-year-old set an Ontario document in 2017 within the 100-metre freestyle, the place he made his first Olympic staff just a few years later and the place the Toronto swimmer boasts a number of Canadian marks.

It’s additionally the place Liendo set a brief course world document within the males’s 100 butterfly on Thursday night. His profitable time of 47.68 seconds eclipsed the earlier mark of 47.71 by Switzerland’s Noe Ponti, who was third on this evening in 48.38.

Liendo, who added a second gold-medal efficiency later in night within the males’s 50 freestyle, instructed Devin Heroux of CBC Sports he couldn’t have imagined setting a world mark within the third and ultimate leg of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup.

“I would have been happy if I saw 48 [seconds] up on the board. Seeing that world record [time] I kinda just went nuts,” mentioned Liendo, who pounded a clenched left fist into the water seconds after the race.

“This pool’s awesome, the crowd’s awesome, so I guess that helped pull me along.”

The two-time Olympian earned $12,500 for his achievement, together with $10,000 for the world document.

In the group was Liendo’s mother, aunt, uncle and former chiropractor.

“Everyone came tonight,” he added, “so I was happy I could put on a show for them.”

World document ‘was going to come back at some point’

Byron MacDonald, the University of Toronto head coach and CBC Sports swimming analyst, mentioned Liendo seemed “a little sluggish” on the first World Cup cease earlier within the month in Carmel, Ind. He added the Canadian was sharper final week in Westmont, Ill., about 35 kilometres southwest of Chicago, the place Liendo positioned third in 49.56 behind Ponti (48.47) and Kharun (49 flat).

“He may look surprised [at achieving the world record] but he’s that good of an athlete,” MacDonald mentioned of Liendo, who trains in Florida. “[The record] was going to come one day. It was just a little sooner than he expected.”

Liendo began sturdy off the block and was on world document tempo by 25 metres, main Ponti by 7-100ths of a second.

Liendo elevated his benefit by 12-100ths on the midway level and 20-100ths with 25 metres remaining.

“He does the little things right and he’s got the power for everything else,” mentioned MacDonald. “He was out fast within the third size and accelerated away from the sector.

“Great flip [and] pop up beneath water. He was slightly lengthy on the contact [of the wall at the finish] nevertheless it doesn’t matter. Excellent swim.”

Iyla Kharun of Montreal, who earned 2024 Olympic bronze in the 100 and 200 fly, captured silver in Toronto, overtaking Ponti in the last of four lengths. He held the previous Canadian record of 49-flat and went 48.35 on Thursday.

1st Black Canadian swimmer to win Olympic medal

Later, the six-foot-four Liendo clocked 20.31 within the 50 free for a World Cup document, beating American Jack Alexy by 39-100ths of a second. Kharun earned bronze (20.73).

Kharun held bragging rights over Liendo within the 100 fly lately, main their 1-2 end in June on the Canadian swimming trials in Victoria, and grabbed bronze on the World Aquatics Championships two months later in Singapore, the place Liendo was fourth.

Last yr in Paris, Liendo captured silver to change into the primary Black Canadian swimmer to win an Olympic medal and was named Swimming Canada’s male swimmer of the yr.

In Paris, he and bronze medallist Kharun had been the primary Canadian males to succeed in the rostrum within the 100 fly since Bruce Robertson’s silver in Munich in 1972.

Competition runs by Saturday. Live streaming protection is on the market Friday and Saturday at CBC Sports and CBC Gem, every day at 10 a.m. ET (preliminaries) and 6 p.m. (finals).

In different occasions Thursday, Hungary’s Hubert Kos additionally set a world document within the males’s 200 backstroke, profitable in 1:45.12, erasing the document of 1:45.63 held by Australian Mitchell Larkin.

Canadian star Summer McIntosh just isn’t participating within the sequence, citing sickness.

Americans Regan Smith, Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass and Shane Casas, Australians Lani Pallister and Kaylee McKeown, Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick and Kos accomplished a sweep of their occasions, every gathering a cheque for $10,000 and a crown.

McKeown received the ladies’s 50 backstroke in a World Cup document of 25.35, beating a stacked discipline that featured 32 Olympic medals. Five-time Olympic medallist Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., was fourth in 25.69.

“I’m really proud, honestly,” Masse mentioned of her efficiency. “It would have been amazing to be on the podium there. I’m definitely a little bit sad that I wasn’t able to do that. I kind of messed up my touch a little bit. But overall, that’s really close to my personal best.”

Masse has been coaching on her personal the final month, “just really trying to figure things out right now, in life and in swimming.”