Canada's Ingrid Wilm earns backstroke bronze for 1st long course individual world medal

Ingrid Wilm extended Canada's streak of medal podium finishes to a third straight day with bronze in the women's 100-metre backstroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

She battled Iona Anderson for silver down the stretch at the Aspire Dome on Tuesday, but the Australian touched the wall first in 59.12 seconds, 6-100ths ahead of Wilm.

The Calgarian finished less than a half-second off her 58.80 personal best from last year's Canadian trials and 10-100ths of Australia's Jaclyn Barclay in fourth.

American Claire Curzan, who qualified first for the final, won gold in 58.29.

The bronze is Wilm's first individual long course (50m) world championship medal after the 25-year-old contributed to bronze by swimming the preliminary heats in 2022 (Budapest, Hungary) and last year in Fukuoka, Japan.

WATCH | Wilm collects bronze medal in women's 100m backstroke:

"I think it's a great starting off point for this Olympic year," Wilm said in a post-race interview. "For me, personally, it's pretty exciting to get my first individual medal at the place where I started competitive swimming here in Doha, so it feels like a bit of a full circle moment right now."

The 19-year-old Curzan, who competes at the University of Virginia, claimed the first individual world title of her burgeoning career.

She benefited from the absence of reigning champion Kaylee McKeown of Australia and American stalwart Regan Smith, both of whom skipped these COVID-delayed worlds to focus on the Paris Olympics.

Curzan's time is significantly slower than Australian Kaylee McKeown's winning time of 57.53 last summer at worlds.

"I can't really believe it yet," Curzan said. "Really excited."

Elsewhere, Toronto resident Sophie Angus finished last in