Masse sweeps backstroke events in Rome
Rio-bound Kylie Masse had a golden sweep at the Italian International swimming competition this past weekend.
The 20-year-old won gold in the 200 metre, 100m and 50m backstroke competitions in Rome, which included a Canadian record time on Friday.
Masse completed the preliminaries of the 50m in 27.67 seconds, beating her own national record of 27.84s posted in February. She went on to win the final with a time of 27.82s.
RELATED: Masse sets national record in 100m backstroke
Kylie Masse set a Canadian record this past weekend in Rome (Photo: Scott Grant).
On Saturday, the Windsor, Ontario native won her second gold medal, taking the 100m backstroke with a time of 59.66s.
On Sunday, Masse completed the backstroke sweep by winning the 200m in a time of two minutes and 8.79s, which was a personal best.
“It means so much to win with the Games coming up,” Masse told Swimming.ca. “I’m really seeing a lot of progress thanks to the hard work I’m putting in and I have to continue with making the necessary adjustments.”
Penny Oleksiak also had a strong showing at the competition by winning three medals. She finished second in the 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly while winning bronze in the 100m freestyle.
RELATED: Oleksiak wins three medals at world junior event
RELATED: More Canadian records broken by Oleksiak
Penny Oleksiak (centre) after her Canadian and world junior record-setting swim in the 100m free at Rio Trials on April 9, 2016 (Photo: Scott Grant via Swimming Canada).
Chantal Van Landeghem (silver – 50m freestyle) and Audrey Lacroix (bronze – 200m butterfly) also won medals in Rome.
Katerine Savard also had a great weekend, winning the 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle at the Quebec Cup in Montreal. She set a Canadian record in the 50m butterfly, posting a time of 25.92s in the preliminaries.
Masse, Oleksiak, Van Landeghem, Lacroix and Savard have all qualified to represent Canada at Rio 2016.
