Swimming Canada beat me to the punch this morning. Well played, sirs!
Kierra Smith of Kelowna BC and Mariya Chekanovych of Burnaby, B.C finished strongly 1-2 in the womens 100BR last night at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Hawaii. This should not come as a shock to many, as Canadian Women's breaststroke is very strong on the world stage. Smith, who won Nationals in July and was a finalist at Olympic Trials in March, posted the fastest prelim time in the moring. Chekanovych was well out of the top 3 in prelims and said she did not expect a medal. Her best event is yet to come in the 200BR. Both girls had best times in the 100BR last night.
Hopefully Canada can see a 1-2 repeat in the womens 200BR because they need the points. Sitting in 4th place right now, Canada only managed to gain another bronze in the Mens 4x200FR relay (MILOSEVIC, ABDEL-KHALIK, GILCHRIST, KALP). Althought the splits were quite quick on this relay, Canada was still almost 5 seconds out of 2nd.
Shockingly, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of Ottawa was bumped out of medal position in the 400IM with a time of 4:43.97, only 0.18 seconds slower than the time that earned her a medal on the Mare Nostrum tour in May; Breanne Siwicki of Winnipeg was sixth in the 400 IM.
Canada was fourth in the 4X200FR relay with Chan, Sydney Pickrem of Halifax and Alexandra Aitchison and Lili Margitai, both of Edmonton while Victoria Chan of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Paige Kremer of Edmonton were fifth and seventh in the 100FR.
Jonathan Naisby of Quebec., was 4th in the Mens 100BR missing the podium by only 0.03 seconds while BC's William Brothers and Luke Reilly were 5th and 6th in the 400 IM. Omar Arafa (OAK) and Robert Gilchrist (AJAX) were 6thand 8th in the 100FR.
Video from yesterday's final session can be found here.
Live results can be found here.
STREAMING LIVE VIDEO for finals and prelims can be found here.
