Canada's Finlay Knox pulls off upset for 1st career gold medal at swimming worlds

It was one final burst that propelled Canada's Finlay Knox to the top of the podium.

The Okotoks, Alta., native captured gold in the men's 200-metre individual medley on Thursday at the World Aquatics Championships, coming from behind in the last 50 metres.

Knox, 23, lingered around third place through the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke lengths, biding his time while Americans Carson Foster and Shaine Casas set the pace.

But the Canadian surged to the front of the pack with a blistering 27.79-second freestyle length to take the gold medal with a total time of one minute 56.64 seconds.

"Last 50 everyone knows you have to dig deep and just go for it. Honestly, I just kept my eyes closed and swam my own race," Knox said poolside after the race.

Foster earned silver at 1:56.97, while Italy's Alberto Razzetti took bronze at 1:57.42.

Knox's victory marks Canada's first gold medal in the pool at these world championships in Doha, Qatar.

Meanwhile, Canada's Ingrid Wilm came into Qatar without any long-course world-championship medals in her career. Now, she has two.

The Calgary native captured her second bronze on Thursday, placing third in the women's 50-metre backstroke.

American Claire Curzan won gold at 27.43 seconds, while Australia's Iona Anderson was just behind at 27.45 seconds. Wilm, 25, touched in 27.61 seconds.

Wilm's previous bronze came in the 100 backstroke, which featured the exact same podium.

Live streaming and extensive coverage of the aquatics worlds runs through Sunday on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.