Sydney Pickrem of Canada competes during the Women's 400m Individual Medley at the Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships, on July 30, 2017.Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Sydney Pickrem won Canada's fourth medal of the FINA world championships on Sunday, earning bronze in the women's 400-metre individual medley.
Pickrem, of Clearwater, B.C., secured third place with a personal best time of four minutes 32.88 seconds – the second-fastest in Canadian history. She vaulted onto the podium a year after her 12th-place finish in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
"It means the world to me, it's the first [400-metre individual medley] international-level final I've ever made," said Pickrem, who at 20 years old was the final's youngest competitor.
"I knew when I didn't make the final in Rio I had so much left, so to finally be able to get in at night and give it all I've got, a result like that means the world."
Home-crowd favourite Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won gold in a championship record time of 4:29.33, while Spain's Mireia Belmonte took silver in 4:32.17.
Pickrem had the fourth-best time over all in the heats to qualify for the final.
Pickrem had been ranked third entering Monday's 200-metre individual medley final, but had to stop after 50 metres after taking on water during the butterfly leg.
"The emotions have definitely taken a toll," Pickrem said. "It's been a learning process, and luckily it came out the most positive it could have. I felt like I let down Canada in the [200-metre individual medley], so to be able to go out there and get on the podium means a lot."
Later on Sunday, Canada narrowly missed the podium in the women's 4x100-metre medley relay. The team featuring Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Kierra Smith and Chantal van Landeghem finished fourth in a Canadian record time of 3:54.86.
The United States won gold in 3:51.55 to set a new world record, Russia took silver and Australia earned bronze.
Canada finished fifth in the event at the Rio Olympics last summer.
"It was incredible," said Masse, who won gold in the 100-metre backstroke on Tuesday with a world-record performance. "It's been a long week so the crowd has helped bring the energy back. Definitely, as a group, we tried to pump each other up as much as we can, really have fun with it as much as we can and put our best foot forward."
Earlier, Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., finished eighth in the women's 50-metre breaststroke in 30.80 seconds. American Lilly King won gold in 29.40.
Canada matched its medal total from the Kazan 2015 FINA world championships with four medals. Canada made 17 appearances in event finals, up from 16 in Kazan, with an additional 20 top-16 finishers, up from 10 in 2015.