SINGAPORE - Lauren Earp won Canada's third swimming medal at the Youth Olympics on Tuesday, finishing third in the women's 100-metre freestyle.

Tang Yi finished first in 54.46 seconds, one of five gold medals for China on the day. Emma McKeon of Australia was second in 55.37 and Earp was third in 56.59.

Earp was fourth after the preliminaries.

"I just thought about the race all day," she said. "I just kept looking at the start list for the final. Still it was a shock when I saw my name in third place."

On Monday, swimmer Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., won gold and Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria captured bronze. Canada has six medals so far, two gold and four bronze.

China's Bai Anqi won the 200-metre backstroke Tuesday for her second medal of the Games. She won a silver medal earlier at the event.

Russia, which won three golds and one silver on Tuesday, leads the medals table with 15 overall, including seven gold. China is next with 14 medals overall, including nine gold.

The United States has only one gold medal, settling for silver in girl's swimming, boy's wrestling and boy's fencing.

Bai overtook Kaitlyn Jones from the United States just before the final turn of the 200 backstroke and held on for victory in 2:11.46.

Jones, who won the 200 individual medley on Sunday, faded on the final lap but was able to hold off a late push by Daryna Zevina of Ukraine to win silver.

Nicol qualified for the women's 100-metre breaststroke final with a time of 1:09.22 in the semifinals. Tera Van Beilen of Oakville, Ont., was third in 1:09.93.

Lindsey Delmar of Calgary qualified for the women's 50 butterfly final by clocking the eighth fastest time.

In other results, the Canadian girls three-on-three basketball team improved to 2-0 with a 25-12 win over Ivory Coast.

Katie Reid of Surrey, B.C., won her 400-metre heat at the track and field competition to advance to Saturday's finals.

"I feel good about my run," Reid said. "I hoped to run faster, but I'm glad I have a spot in the finals because now anything can happen."

Kristina Laforge of Alma, Que., finished the women's cross-country leg of the combined mixed team cycling event in third spot. Teammate Steven Noble of Glencairn, Ont., was 13th in the men's event. Each team consists of three junior men and one junior woman. The three male cyclists are required to compete in one discipline each (BMX, cross-country and time trial) while the female cyclist must race all three disciplines.

In Wednesday's action, Britain's David Bolarinwa and Jamaica's Odane Skeen won their qualifying heats in the 100 metres, setting up a much anticipated final between two sprinters touted as the next Usain Bolt.

Bolarinwa blew away the field in his heat, finishing in 10.62 seconds. Skeen got out slowly but surged to beat Thailand's Jirapong Meenapra.

The 17-year-old Bolarinwa has the fastest time this year among 16- and 17-year-olds -- a 10.39 in London earlier this month. Skeen, a 16-year-old whose lanky style has some likening him to his compatriot Bolt, ran a 10.46 in Jamaica.

"I thought let me go there, go hard and see if anyone can go faster," Bolarinwa said. "It was a good performance overall."

Skeen was less thrilled with his performance, blaming his slower time on two false starts by other competitors. But he said come Saturday's final, he would win.

Meanwhile, Liberian swimmers Sima Weah and Mika-Jah Teah managed an unusual first. Competing in the 50 freestyle heat, they both acknowledged this was the first time they had raced in a pool. Until now, they had trained in a river near the capital Monrovia, forced to dodge crabs and kismet fish.

They finished 24 seconds behind the fastest qualifiers, but coach Steven Weah said he was happy they had travelled to the Games to compete.

"I am proud of them because this is their first appearance in international competition," he told the Youth Olympics news service, adding there are no pools for them to train in Liberia.

Princess Stephanie of Monaco, who is in Singapore to support her daughter in the three-metre springboard competition, said the appearance of countries like Liberia is one of the benefits of this Youth Olympics.

"I think it is a very good idea because it gives kids the chance to have an Olympics," she said. "Some of these small countries won't make it (to the main Olympic Games) because the qualifying is so hard. They can say that they were in the Olympic Games."

Watching 16-year-old daughter Pauline Ducruet train Tuesday, Stephanie said she was playing the role of a "good old mum."

Ducruet started diving four years ago and her dream is to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Her great-grandfather, John Kelly, won three Olympic gold medals in rowing for the United States in the 1920s and her uncle, Prince Albert, was a member of Monaco's bobsled team in five Olympic Winter Games and is president of the Monaco Olympic Committee.

"I guess we have the Olympics in our blood," Stephanie said.

Meanwhile, Russia and the former Soviet republics continued their dominance on the wrestling mat winning three of five golds up for grabs on Tuesday.

In a boy's 46 kilogram match, Russia's Alkdar Balzhinimaev easily beat Iran's Mehran Shekhi 4-0 while Azamatbi Pshnatlov of Russia shut out Bakhodar Kadirover of Tajikstan 4-0.

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With files from The Canadian Press.