Swimming Canada – BERLIN – Taylor Ruck took silver for the second straight day and Aly Ackman just missed another medal as Canadians continued to succeed at the FINA World Cup in Berlin.
Ruck’s time of 59.84 was second only to Kira Toussaint of the Netherlands in the 100-m backstroke Saturday. That came on the heels of a 50-m back silver behind Toussaint Friday in a personal best time of 28.31.
“I’m really happy with my performances here in Berlin and I’m definitely happy with them compared to (last week’s World Cup leg in) Budapest,” Ruck said. “I’m just trying to work on technique and have fun, those are my two goals.”
Meanwhile, Ackman’s time of 1:59.52 left her just 0.12 off the podium behind Hungarian Zsuzsanna Jakabos. Czech Barbora Seemanova (1:58.78) out-touched Michelle Coleman of Sweden (1:58.80) for the win.
The time was faster than her bronze-medal swim from Berlin, and would have been fast enough to win gold last weekend. Ackman also picked up bronze in the 400 free Friday with a time of 4:11.25.
“We were able to kind of take what I made for mistakes last week and put them into training for this week, which is really great having the meets back to back,” Ackman said. “I’m really happy with the 400 being so close to my best time and getting really excited about what I learned from that race and putting it into training for the next few months.
“The 200 today was again faster than last week which feels really great A little disappointed losing the podium finish but that’s what it is. My time was still great and I’m still learning and moving forward. It’s amazing being here on this experience.”
Ackman, who trains on her own in the U.S., said she’s particularly appreciated working with athletic therapist Johnny Fuller and race analyst Ryan Atkison on this tour.
Meanwhile, at the International Swimming League in Naples, Italy, Kylie Masse won the 200-m backstroke for the second straight weekend. Masse added a second-place finish in the 50 to help her Cali Condors to the lead after Day 1 of the two-day match.
“Kylie is swimming very fast right now, she’s right on her best time for this early in the season,” said her coach at the University of Toronto, Byron Macdonald. “That was a loaded field with the European champion (Italy’s Margherita Panziera) and her rival from Australia Emily Seebohm, so winning is great.”