Alghero, ITA – A seven-athlete contingent wrapped up the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming Junior World Championships with some of the best individual results in Canadian history. Races ran from on Sept. 5 to 8, spanning from 3-km knockout sprint, to 5-km, 7.5-km and 10-km distances, and the mixed 4×1500-m team relay.
Taira Vroom was Canada’s top finisher placing ninth in 7.5-km event for the girls 16-17 category. The athlete who swims for the Barrie Trojan Swim Club touched with a time of 1:26:41.40, just under a minute from the first-place finisher, Claire Weinstein of the United States going 1:25:43.30. In silver position was Clara Martinez de Salinas Pena of Spain clocking in at 1:25:46.00 and in third was Napsugar Nagy from Hungary touching at 1:25:49.60.
“I think it was amazing, it was really fun” said Vroom, a first-time junior national team member. “Being able to compete in all these races against these world-class athletes is really inspiring and it made me just want to swim faster.”
“I was very happy with my results. My 7.5k results were really good. The eliminator was super fun, that was a cool experience, and our relay did really well too.”
Vroom’s top-10 finish was the best event result for Canada in the 16-17 age group. Behind her in the category was Laila Oravsky who finished 25th in 1:28:49.30
The two also raced in the 3-km knockout sprint overall where they finished 14th and 24th before taking part in the open mixed 4×1500-m team relay with Olivier Risk and Aiden Kirk. The team finished ninth in 1:14:33.10.
Coming off the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Canberra, Australia, Kirk switched gears from racing in the pool to the 7.5-km open water event. The 17-year-old was Canada’s best finisher on the boys side finishing 13th in the 16-17 category, a best ever for Canada with a time of 1:21:30.20.
Taking the gold was Turkey’s Emir Batur Albayrak touching at 1:18:34.30 who out-touched Italy’s Davide Grossie by a tenth of a second. Albayrak’s teammate, Atakn Ercan finished in bronze position four seconds later in a time of 1:18.39.00 in the category.
“I thought things went very well honestly,” said Kirk, a Kelowna Aquajets swimmer. “I did pretty well in the 7.5-km race and then I think I did well for my team in the relay as well. Overall, it was a really good week.”
Joining him in the 7.5-km race was Simon Fonseca who finished 34th, and 27th in the boys 3-km knockout sprint.
Other Canadian results include girls 14-15 years in the 5-km with Elleigh Wise from Cascade Swim Club finishing 18th and Michelle Zeng of West Vancouver Otters Swim Club in 20th.
Wrapping up the boys events was Risk finishing 24th in the 18-19 category for the 10-km and 29th for the 3-km knockout sprint.
Swimming Canada Distance/Open Water Coach Mark Perry, the team leader at the event, reflected on the small but mighty team performance, touching on the encouraging sign of the growing popularity of open water racing.
“It was a pleasure working with such a professional group of swimmers and staff at the largest ever world junior open water swimming championships,” said Perry. “The 2024 edition of the event saw 41 countries enter with every race having significantly more entries than ever before.”
Full Results: https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/3504/world-aquatics-open-water-swimming-junior-world-championships/results?