(L-R) Ali DeLoof, Lilly King, Kelsi Worrell and Mallory Comerford take a selfie after winning their gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley at the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) at the WFCU Centre on Dec. 11, 2016 in Windsor, Ontario.
Team USA added four more medals to its haul Sunday as the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships for short-course distances came to a close at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario, topping the overall medal count with 30 total.
Kelsi Worrell showed her grit both in and out of the pool. Not only did she break two records while claiming silver in the women’s 100-meter butterfly and swimming a leg of the victorious 4x100-meter medley, she did the latter hurt.
Worrell broke the American record in the women’s 100 fly, but it still wasn’t enough to keep Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu from winning her seventh gold medal of the meet. The two-time Olympic champion tracked down Worrell over the last 25 meters to win in 55.12 seconds, just ahead of Worrell’s 55.22. It was Worrell’s third individual silver of the meet. Sarah Gibson was sixth, touching in 57.22.
The final gold of the meet went to the U.S. in the women’s 4x100-meter medley as Worrell, Ali DeLoof, Lilly King and Mallory Comerford broke the meet record with a time of 3:47.89. Swimming the second leg, Olympic champion Lilly King pushed the Americans from third to first before she handed off to Worrell, who doubled the margin and gave Comerford enough of a cushion to hold off a late bid by Canada, which took silver in 3:48.87.
Worrell’s relay performance came minutes after a warm-up pool accident that left her with a wound over her right eyebrow. The cut prevented Worrell from participating in the medal ceremony for the 100 fly, which was held as she was receiving sutures to close the wound.
Jacob Pebley improved his personal best by two seconds to claim his first individual medal of the meet, a silver, in the men’s 200-meter backstroke. His time of 1:48.98 was the third fastest in the world this season. The 2016 Olympian was 1.35 seconds behind Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki, who won with a time of 1:47.63.
Madison Kennedy also earned her first individual medal in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. Her time of 23.93 seconds was good for bronze, just 0.03 behind Italy’s Silvia Di Pietro, while Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands won in 23.60.
The U.S. finished the championship with eight golds, 15 silvers and seven bronzes. The 30 medals is the second-most the U.S. has earned at the event, behind the 41 medals won at the 2004 short-course worlds in Indianapolis.
