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Three Top 5 finishes on Day 4 of Summer Universiade

FISU Summer Universiade 2017 –

 TAIPEI, Taiwan – Multiple Canadian women were in action on the fourth day of the FISU Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan with three Top 5 finishes to show for it.

Montreal’s Alexia Zevnik was Canada’s top finisher, coming fourth in the women’s 100-m backstroke final. She posted a time of 1:00.78 to finish behind Japan’s Anna Konishi (1:00.33) and just outside the medals. Australia’s Sian Whittaker took gold in 1:00.14 to complete a backstroke double, after beating Zevnik in the 200 earlier this week. Team USA’s Hannah Stevens (1:00.23) was second.

The final event of the night was the women’s 4×200-m freestyle relay, which featured a Canadian team of Jacqueline Keire, Katerine Savard, Danica Ludlow and Kennedy Goss. The team finished fifth with a time of 8:01.00.

“Going into that race, we all we had high expectations. However, I think there’s a feeling of defeat from falling short of those expectations tonight,” said Keire, who led off in 2:01.07. “I’m really proud of the girls for putting up a fight but I’m not satisfied with my individual time. There are races where your best effort doesn’t really cut it but all you can do is learn from it and move forward.”

Toronto’s Goss, the team’s anchor, was in a close race for bronze against Japan and Great Britain as the three nations battled for the last spot on the podium during the final 100 metres. Japan was able to hold off the two Commonwealth nations to claim the bronze medal behind the United States and Russia, which won gold in 7:55.28, just 0.04 seconds ahead of the Americans.

“It’s always disappointing missing the podium but our girls tried and put their best effort forth,” Goss said. “I know we have a lot more races ahead of us, so hopefully we can just put that behind us and we’ll keep doing well moving forward.”

In between those performances, Sarah Darcel of Grande Cache, Alta., came fifth in the women’s 200-m individual medley with a time of 2:13.18. The High Performance Centre – Victoria swimmer was also in the women’s 200-m breaststroke where she placed 15th with a time of 2:31.89. Regina’s Kelsey Wog swam alongside her teammate in the 200 breast and she posted a time of 2:31.67 for a 14th place finish.

Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Qué., placed 14th in the women’s 100-m butterfly with a time of 1:00.45. Savard holds the Universiade record of 57.63 in the event, a mark she set in Kazan, Russia in 2013.

The Summer Universiade continues through Sunday. Finals begin at 7 a.m. ET and are being streamed live on CBC at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/summer-universiade-1.4244659.

Full results are available here: https://www.2017.taipei/home.