OTOPENI, Romania – Canada concluded six-day 2025 World Aquatics World Junior Swimming Championships on a high note Sunday with a meet-high six finals.
The top Canadian result on the day came from the women’s 4X100-m medley relay which placed fourth. The swimmers in both the heats and final were Madison Kryger, Madyson Hartway, Clare Watson and Leah Tigert. They clocked 4:02.50, less than a second from the podium.
‘’It was the last day, we’re all tired, but we put together a really good relay and pushed each other,’’ said Kryger, from HPC-Ontario/Brock Niagara Aquatics. The 17-year-old was Canada’s sole medallist at the competition with a bronze in the 100 backstroke on Wednesday.
‘’It gave us confidence to be the same team as the heats and we figured out how to go even faster in the final.’’
Clare Watson and Anton Semenyuk were Canada’s best individually Sunday placing fifth in the women’s 100-metre butterfly and men’s 200-m butterfly.
Semenyuk, of Natation Gatineau, clocked a personal best in both the morning heats and evening final improving from 1:59.67 and 1:59.48.
Watson clocked 58.69 in her final just 0.59 from the podium.
Shima Taghavi of the Hyack Swim Club in New Westminster, B.C., added a sixth in the women’s 200-m breaststroke bettering her time by three seconds in the final to 2:27.83, a personal best by over two seconds.
Taghavi’s time was also a national 13-14 age group record. Also with national age group records this week were Oliver Dawson of Grand Prairie Piranhas in the men’s 100-metre breaststroke and Laon Kim of the University of Calgary in the men’s 200-m freestyle. Dawson and Kim’s records were in the 15-17 age group.
Francis Brennan of HPC-Ontario was eighth in the men’s 200-m backstroke and Ella Cosgrove was also eighth in the women’s 200-m freestyle.
‘’It didn’t go as well as I would have hoped,’’ said Brennan. ‘’But you know what? I made a final, and I gotta take it. It’s really good to see the level of competition here, because there are some guys that are going pretty crazy times, and it just really opens your eyes.’
Canada’s head coach Rob Novak was proud to see his troops dig deep on the last day to have its best day overall at the championships.
‘’ The messaging was to have six strong days of competition,’’ he said. ‘’Do the hard work, show dedication and be intentional regarding preparation. The staff and I are very happy with that.’’
Also the Canadian swimmers had produced 21 personal bests – 12 by the men and nine by the women, heading into Sunday’s races.
‘’I hope the collaboration piece is what the swimmers and staff take away from this event,’’ said Novak. ‘’To think big and take what they learn from here and move it forward in their development.
“We came here as individuals, but we’re leaving as a team. We want that pathway stronger each year as we build toward L.A. 2028.”
Full results: https://www.omegatiming.com/2025/world-aquatics-junior-swimming-championships-live-results