SINGAPORE – Mary Jibb is taking a liking to rewriting the Canadian record book.
For the second straight night at the World Para Swimming Championships, the 23-year-old from Muskoka, Ont., set an S9 national mark, this time in the women’s 100-m butterfly.
While her performance wasn’t quite enough to stand on top of the podium, as was the case on Monday in the 200 individual medley, the world championships rookie was thrilled with her 1:10.29 swim, good for fifth place.
“I’m really happy with that race. That was the plan, to go 1:10.00, maybe even 1:09.00, so I’m very happy with that,” said Jibb, who had posted a personal best 1:11.44 in the morning preliminaries.
“Despite the fast times from this morning, the plan was we were going to race the girls tonight, and I feel like I did a really good job of that. My backend speed was really good. So overall, just super happy.”
In the final, the teenager was seventh at the turn but was the fourth fastest coming back to move up two spots over the final 50 metres.
Xu Jialing of China defended her title in 1:08.24. Hungary’s Zsófia Konkoly (1:08.49) and Australia’s Emily Beecroft (1:08.65) took silver and bronze to replicate their results from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Jibb, who placed eighth in the 100 fly last summer in her Paralympics debut, isn’t just breaking any records in Singapore. The two national marks she has lowered so far belonged to Canadian great Stephanie Dixon since Beijing 2008, when Jibb was one year old.
Dixon had clocked 1:11.04 in the 100 fly in the Chinese capital city.
“Looking at those times, six months ago, they seemed so big, I would never have dreamed of swimming this fast,” said Jibb, who moved from Ontario to the west coast last March to train with the Pacific Sea Wolves coached by Jy Lawrence in Surrey, B.C.
Three other Canadians raced in finals on Tuesday, including Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C., who finished fourth in the men’s 100 breaststroke S14, as well as Alec Elliott of Kitchener, Ont., and Jordan Tucker of Guelph, Ont., seventh in the men’s 400 freestyle S10 and the women’s 50 fly S5.
Bennett, the reigning Paralympic champion and 2023 world silver medallist in the 100 breast S14, was disappointed with both his placing and his time after a 1:04.90 swim, over a second off his Canadian record of 1:03.71.
“Could be anything. I don’t know, to be honest. We’ve been training for seven months,” said the seven-time world medallist when asked about the race. “Right now, I’m just trying to replay it in my head, and see what we could do better.
“It’s quite disappointing but, you know, I just have to get ready for my next race,” added the 21-year-old from the Red Deer Catalina Swim Club.
Bennett next jumps in the water on Day 5 for the 200 individual medley, an event in which he holds the world record and also won Paralympic gold last summer in Paris.
Japanese superstar Naohide Yamaguchi, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion who settled for bronze last year in the French capital, captured his remarkable fourth straight world title in a championships record time of 1:03.36.
Yamaguchi was followed at the wall by Paris runner-up Jake Michel of Australia (1:03.51) and Harry Stewart of Great Britain 1:04.04, who set Oceania and European marks.
In the men’s 400 free S10, Elliot posted a season-best 4:21.00. The three-time Paralympian has reached the final in his marquee event in each of his four appearances at worlds, claiming bronze medals in 2022 and 2019.
Bas Takken of the Netherlands won his first world title in 4:05.28 after taking silver at each of the past three WPS championships.
“It was a pretty good swim, season’s best. I’m happy to end (the season) on that note,” said the 29-year-old veteran representing the Region of Waterloo Swim Club and Wilfrid Laurier University. “I followed my race plan pretty well. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t fast enough tonight.
“I’m looking forward to starting training for it for the next year, and see where we’re at.”
One of the busiest Canadian swimmers in Singapore, Tucker was competing in her fourth event in two days, including one relay. Racing one class up in the 50 fly S5, the 23-year-old from Royal City Aquatics clocked 54.46.
In other Canadian action, Sebastian Massabie of Surrey, B.C., ranked 10th in the men’s 50 fly S5 (36.27), Reid Maxwell of St. Albert, Alta., was 10th in the men’s 100 fly S8 (1:07.50), and Tucker placed 11th in the women’s 150 individual medley SM4 (3:44.25).
With four days to go in the meet, Canada’s podium count remains at three, including one gold and two bronze medals.
The World Para Swimming Championships run through Saturday at the OCBC Aquatic Centre in Singapore. Nineteen Canadians are among over 580 athletes from 75 nations competing in the first-ever edition of the event held in Asia.
Morning heats begin at 9 p.m. ET, with finals at 5:30 a.m. ET. Fans can watch all sessions on cbcsports.ca or on CBC Gem. Radio-Canada Sports is broadcasting the swimming events on its Tou.tv platform.
Schedule & results: https://www.paralympic.org/swimming/live-results