Maggie Mac Neil did what she does best in the women’s 100-m butterfly — win gold — to highlight Canada’s seven-medal second day of competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in England on Saturday.
The native of London, Ont., swam the distance in a Commonwealth Games record time of 56.36 seconds, capturing the Commonwealth title to go along with the Olympic title she earned just 12 months earlier.
The 22-year-old Mac Neil finished just two hundredths of a second ahead of Australia’s Emma McKeon, who claimed the silver medal. Another Australian, Brianna Throssell, won the bronze medal.
Saturday’s medals boosted Canada’s total to 11. The Canadian team won 82 at the Games four years ago in Australia.
Mac Neil swam alongside fellow Canadians Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith in the final, who concluded in the fifth and eighth positions, respectively.
On Friday, Mac Neil helped Canada’s mixed 4×100 freestyle relay team earn bronze along with Rebecca Smith, Joshua Liendo Edwards and Javier Acevedo.
Canadian Para swimmer Nicolas-Guy Turbide also delivered a gold medal, record-setting performance in the 50-m freestyle S13.
The Quebec City native swam for a time of 24.32 seconds to break both the Canadian and the Commonwealth Games records in the event.
Turbide narrowly edged Scotland’s Stephen Clegg by just 0.01 seconds. Jacob Templeton of Australia finished third.
The triumph adds to Turbide’s recent success. In June, the 25-year-old struck gold in the men’s 100 metre backstroke S13 race at the world para swimming championships in Portugal.
Canadian swimmers kept the podium finishes coming.
Canada’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team captured the bronze medal shortly before Josh Liendo led the way as the Canadian men’s team also captured the bronze medal.
Summer McIntosh, 15, who won gold in the women’s 400 IM on Friday, had a slower start than many expected as the first swimmer. Still, Canada’s Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith kept pace with their competitors to set the stage for Maggie Mac Neil’s dominant anchor leg, nearly pushing Canada to silver with a time of 3:37.25.
The Canadian women’s team won silver in the same event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with Mac Neil being the only swimmer to compete in both events.
On the men’s side, Liendo won the initial leg, with strong swims from Ruslan Gaziev, Finlay Knox and Javier Acevedo pushing Canada into the third spot and bronze medal position with a time of 3:13.01. The podium in the men’s event perfectly mirrored that of the women’s event with Australia taking top spot and England capturing the silver medal.
