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Records fall as Canada advances to five finals

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WINDSOR, Ont. – Toronto’s 16-year-old sensation Penny Oleksiak wrote her name in the national record books two more times Wednesday morning at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Windsor, Ont.

Oleksiak broke an individual short-course record, and helped the women’s 4×50-metre medley relay to a new national mark during Wednesday’s preliminary session.

Kylie Masse, Kelsey Wog, Oleksiak, and Michelle Williams bested the previous record by more than four and a half seconds. The women’s time of 1 minute, 45.49 seconds has the team going into tonight’s final ranked first.

Meanwhile, Oleksiak lowered the Canadian mark in the 100-m freestyle in 52.36, and is also going into the final seeded first. She won gold in the long-course 100-m freestyle at the Rio Olympic Games in August.

Sandrine Mainville of Boucherville, Que., also moved on to the semifinals in the 100-m freestyle in 4th place in 52.97.

Oleksiak noted that the crowd at the WFCU Centre in Windsor helped push her performance.

“My fans really got me going. Even on the blocks there were people chanting my name.”

It was Oleksiak’s first time competing at an international competition in Canada.

“Being able to race on home soil was pretty cool.”

“Being able to race on home soil was pretty cool.”

Canada has four other final swims coming up on Wednesday night.

Hometown hero Kylie Masse will be swimming for a medal in the 100-m backstroke. The Windsor native set a Canadian record in Tuesday prelims, and is seeded first for tonight’s final. Masse won a bronze medal in Rio.

Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que., progressed in the 200-m butterfly. The 23-year-old swam a 2:07.54, which places her sixth in tonight’s final.

The mixed 4×50-m freestyle relay will also swim in finals tonight. The team of Yuri Kisil, Mirando Jarry, Alexia Zevnik, and Savard earned Canada’s spot in the final seeded seventh after swimming a time of 1:32.46 in the heat.

In the women’s 800-m freestyle, Olivia Anderson progressed to finals in fourth place in 8:24.65 to advance to Thursday’s final.

Preliminary heats are at 9:30 a.m. each morning, with finals set for 6:30 p.m. each night. CBCSports.ca is streaming the championships beginning Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/aquatics/world-short-course-world-championships-1.3881730

Sportsnet One will also be airing a highlight show each morning at 6 a.m. ET.

For complete results, visit http://www.omegatiming.com/Competition?id=000110000DFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=AQ&year=2016