ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Tessa Cieplucha wanted to give it her all in her last meet of the year.
The 23-year-old from Georgetown, Ont., raced to gold in the women's 400-metre individual medley as Canada opened the world short-course swimming championships with three medals Thursday.
The women's 4x100 freestyle relay also won gold whlie Rebecca Smith captured a silver in the 200 freestyle.
Cieplucha took the lead at the 250-metre mark then held on to win in a personal-best time of four minutes 25.55 seconds.
"That last leg was definitely painful, but I kept telling myself to keep going," she said.
Ellen Walshe of Ireland was second in 4:26.52 and American Melanie Margalis was third in 4:26.83. Bailey Andison of Smiths Falls, Ont., was fifth.
"I’m really happy with the race," Cieplucha said. "Coming into this meet I knew it would be one of the toughest fields. It is such a great feeling to start a busy week this way and hopefully I can carry the momentum."
Kayla Sanchez, Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil, Smith, and Katerine Savard set a Canadian short-course record of 3:28.52 to tie the Americans for gold in the relay.
Smith put Canada in first place to set the stage for Savard on her anchor leg. The 28-year-old fell behind four-time Olympic medallist Abby Weitzeil of the U.S. before finding a final push to touch the wall in a dead heat.
"I was shaking on the blocks. I knew I was the slowest on the team, but I had a job to do at the end and I wanted to keep our first-place position," Savard said. "I didn't breathe the last couple of strokes because I just wanted to touch the wall."
Mac Neil, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in the 100 butterfly, withdrew from her 100 backstroke semifinal to focus on the relay final.
"Seeing how close it was scheduled to the relay I wanted to be there for the girls," she said. "I knew we had it in us to do something good tonight."
Smith, a 21-year-old from Red Deer, Alta., set a Canadian short-course record time of 1:52.24 in her silver-medal freestyle performance.
Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong won gold in a world-record time of 1:50.31.
The championships, which run through Tuesday, are held in a short-course — 25-metre — pool, as opposed to the swimming events at the World Aquatic Championships or the Olympics, which are held in a 50-metre pool.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2021.
The Canadian Press
