Canada continued to pile up medals at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, with four more trips to the podium Thursday.
Canada increased its medal tally to nine at the halfway mark of the four-day meet in Canberra, Australia.
Laon Kim of University of Calgary Swim Club tied for silver in the men’s 100-m freestyle. His personal best time of 49.37 was equal with Australian Marcus Da Silva, and behind only Youngbeom Kim of Korea (48.66).
“It feels amazing. It’s my first international meet, and to medal on a stage like that is just pretty impressive. I think it makes it even more special knowing that I represented Canada and I medalled for them,” said Kim, 16.
“I think going into the race I wasn’t really expecting anything. I didn’t get any sleep in between the sessions so my confidence was not too high but I knew I was going to swim the same race anyways so might as well just go for it.”
Oliver Dawson followed up with his second medal in as many days, taking bronze in the men’s 100-m breaststroke. Dawson matched his heat time with a personal best 1:01.27, finishing behind Shin Ohashi of Japan (1:01.08) and American Campbell McKean (1:01.13).
The 16-year-old from the Grande Prairie (Alta.) Pirahnas was also part of the silver medal mixed medley that earned one of Canada’s five medals Wednesday.
Canada added two more relay medals Thursday at the Australian Institute of Sport Aquatic Centre.
The team of Julia Strojnowska, Ella Cosgrove, Mia West and Jenna Walters combined for a time of 8:02.77 to take women’s 4×200-m freestyle silver by .22 seconds ahead of the host Australians. Team USA won in 7:53.56.
The men’s 4×200 free team of Ethan Ekk, Kim, Alexander Miao and Aiden Norman capped the night with bronze in a time of 7:17.73, just .07 behind Australia. Team USA came out on top again, with a time of 7:15.82.
Canada has already tripled its total from the last Junior Pan Pacs in Honolulu in 2022, with Norman’s 100-m backstroke gold medal Wednesday the highlight so far.
The four-day meet continues through Saturday. The event, held every two years, brings together the best junior swimmers from Charter nations Australia, USA, Canada and Japan. Invitations are also extended to other non-European nations, with regular participants including Singapore and New Zealand. The University of British Columbia Aquatic Centre will host the next edition Aug. 17-20, 2026, in Vancouver.
Full results: https://liveresults.swimming.org.au/sal/2024JPP/