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Canadian swimmers open Junior Pan Pacs with two medals

2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships –

SUVA, Fiji – Canada won the silver medal in the 4X100-m mixed medley relay and Madison Broad of Chatham, Ont., added a bronze in the 100-m backstroke on Thursday at the Junior Pan Pacific swimming championships.

In the mixed relay, the Americans took the gold medal in three minutes and 47.01 seconds. Canada followed at 3:51.27 and Japan was third in 3:53.72. The Canadian swimmers were Tyler Wall of Penticton, B.C., Gabe Mastromatteo of Kenora, Ont., Margaret MacNeil of London, Ont., and Ainsley McMurray of Cote-St-Luc, Que.

In the women’s 100-m backstroke, Phoebe Bacon led the U.S. to a 1-2 finish in 59.72 with Katharine Berkoff second in 1:00.16. Broad took the bronze in a personal best 1:00.53 and Maude Boily-Dufour of Sarnia, Ont., was fourth in 1:02.37.

‘’The race was actually pretty good, I felt confident going in,’’ said Broad. ‘’It just continued the improvements I’ve been having this year. I really improved my time by pulling the water with a high stroke rate. These championships are a big step in becoming a high performance athlete.’’

Other Canadian finalists in women’s competition were Emma O’Croinin of Edmonton fourth in the 800-m freestyle in a personal best 8:40.53 while Octavia Lau of New Westminster, B.C. was ninth in 8:53.10; McMurray with eighth in the 200-m freestyle in 2:02.48 and Victoria Kwan of Markham, Ont., also eighth in the 200-m butterfly in 2:15.54.

‘’I had a great warm-up and was excited to race,’’ said O’Croinin. ‘’I held a faster pace throughout the race and held a more even splitting. It’s a real cool opportunity to come here and race the top juniors in the world.’’

Men finalists were Wall and Sebastian Somerset of Calgary fourth and eighth in the 100-m backstroke in 56.43 and 56.86, Cole Pratt of Calgary and Joshua Liendo of North York, Ont., sixth and eighth in the 200-m butterfly in 2:03.39 and 2:04.32 and Justin Konik of Etobicoke, Ont., seventh in the 200-m freestyle in 1:52.80.

Michael McGillivray of Regina was ninth in the 1500-m freestyle in 15:55.37.

Competition continues through to Sunday.

Full results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/Jr%20PanPacs/2018/