Maggie Mac Neil's butterfly gold, relay bronze leads 4-medal day for Canada at short course worlds

Canadian swimmers continued to climb the podium on Wednesday at the world short course championships in Melbourne, Australia, including a gold medal won by Maggie Mac Neil in the women's 50-metre butterfly.

The Canadian finished in 24.64 seconds, tying with American Torri Huske for first place. China's Zhang Yufei (24.71) rounded out the podium in third place. 

Mac Neil, of London, Ont., already had a bronze medal win to her credit after helping Canada to a third-place finish in Tuesday's 4x100m final.

In the women's backstroke, Calgary's Ingrid Wilm tied for bronze with Claire Curzan of the U.S., both touching the wall in 55.74. Fellow Canadian Kylie Masse, of La Salle, Ont., finished sixth in a time of 56.18.

Australian swimmers Kaylee McKeown (55.49) and Mollie O'Callaghan (55.62) took gold and silver, respectively.

Mac Neil and Masse combined forces with Toronto's Javier Acevedo and Montreal's Ilya Kharun to help the Canadian mixed 50m medley relay team win bronze. The Canadians' time of 1:36.93, was a little over a second behind the world-record pace of the American team (1:35.15).

The Canadian women's 4x200m added a silver-medal finish, fending off the Americans, but behind a world record swim by Australia.

Rebecca Smith, Katerine Savard, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Taylor Ruck combined to finish in 7:34.47, which was 0.37 seconds ahead of the U.S., but well behind Australia's new world standard of 7:30.87.

Smith, Savard and Ruck also won relay bronze with Mac Neil in the women's 4x100m relay on Tuesday.

Competition in Melbourne runs through Sunday.