Canadians open Pan Pacific Swimming Championships with 5 medals

Canada opened the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships with 5 medals on Wednesday. 

Saskatoon’s Blake Tierney gained gold within the males’s 100-metre backstroke, topping the sphere with a time of 53.18 seconds, 0.19 seconds forward of American Will Modglin.

Earlier within the day, Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh claimed silver within the girls’s 200-metre freestyle, touching in 1:53.86. 

Lani Pallister of Australia completed first with a time of 1:53.67 and New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather got here in third at 1:55.05.

The 19-year-old three-time Olympic champion from Toronto is constructing towards a objective of 5 particular person gold medals on the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., captured three bronze medals on Wednesday, together with third-place finishes in each the ladies’s 50-metre butterfly and 100-metre backstroke. 

The four-time Olympic medallist posted a time of 25.23 seconds within the butterfly, 0.58 seconds behind American Gretchen Walsh, who captured gold with a Pan Pacs document of 24.65.

Ruck then helped the Canadians shut out the primary day of competitors with one other bronze within the 4×100-metre medley relay. 

Her crew, with Ingrid Wilm, Oliver Dawson and Finlay Knox, completed in 3:43.22, behind the first-place Americans and second-place Australians. 

Another Canadian crew, composed of Tierney, Alexanne Lepage, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Ruslan Gaziev, got here in fourth. 

The competitors continues Thursday with McIntosh swimming within the 400-metre particular person medley, whereas Ruck races the 100-metre freestyle and Tierney takes on the 50-metre backstroke.