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Kharun, Wilm reach podium twice as Canada wins three medals at short-course worlds

BUDAPEST — Canadian swimmers Ilya Kharun and Ingrid Wilm won two medals each Wednesday at the short-course world championships. Montreal's Kharun won silver in the men's 50-metre butterfly and Calgary's Wilm took bronze in the women's 100 backstroke.
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Canada's Ingrid Wilm reacts after winning a 100-metre backstroke semifinal during the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Denes Erdos

BUDAPEST — Canadian swimmers Ilya Kharun and Ingrid Wilm won two medals each Wednesday at the short-course world championships.

Montreal's Kharun won silver in the men's 50-metre butterfly and Calgary's Wilm took bronze in the women's 100 backstroke.

They then joined Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., and Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., to win silver in the mixed 4x50 medley relay.

Kharun, who won two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics, finished the 50 butterfly in 21.67 seconds, holding off bronze medallist Nyls Korstanje of the Netherlands by one-hundredth of a second. Switzerland's Noe Ponti took gold in a world-record time of 21.32 seconds.

Wilm finished the 100 backstroke in 55.75 seconds, behind Americans Regan Smith (54.55) and Katherine Berkoff (54.93). Masse, the two-time 100-metre backstroke long-course champion, was sixth.

The relay team finished in one minute 35.94 seconds, with a team of neutral athletes winning gold in 1:35.36 and the United States taking bronze in 1:36.20.

Wilm has three medals in Budapest through two days of competition. She also teamed with Summer McIntosh and Penny Oleksiak, both from Toronto, and Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivières, Que., to win bronze in the women's 4x100 freestyle relay Tuesday.

She won three bronze medals at the 2022 short-course championships in Melbourne, Australia, including the 100 backstroke and the 4x50 mixed medley relay.

Kharun is also a multi-medallist for the second straight short-course championships after winning a silver and a bronze in his international debut in 2022.

Knox now has two medals after claiming bronze in the men's 200 medley on Tuesday.

Canada has seven medals (one gold, two silver, four bronze) in Budapest so far, including McIntosh's world-record win in the women's 400 freestyle on Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press