Wu earns bronze for Canada on first night of Junior Pan Pacs
HONOLULU, Hawaii – Adam Wu of Surrey, B.C. won Canada’s first medal of the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in the men’s 200-m freestyle Wednesday.
Wu dropped just over a second off his previous best time during his prelims swim. He lowered his time by another 2.8 seconds during the men’s A final to reach the podium in 1:48.26. Flynn Southam of Australia took gold in 1:47.11 and Maximus Williamson of the U.S. captured silver in 1:48.21.
“I’m very happy with this 200 freestyle,” Wu said. “I tried to build the middle 100 and stay as close to the competition as possible. I knew that all the other swimmers had strong first 100s and I wanted to stay within striking distance. I would have a good chance at closing the race if I was able to do that.”
In a tight turnaround following the 200-m freestyle, Wu placed fifth in the 200-m butterfly in a another personal best time of 1:59.99. Benjamin Loewen of Toronto finished in sixth in 2:00.22.
In the women’s 200-m freestyle, Elan Daley of Toronto placed sixth in 2:00.87, keeping under her previous time of 2:01.64. Mia West of Winnipeg also improved her time finishing in seventh in 2:01.12. Erin Gemmell of the U.S. took gold in 1:56.15 and Jamie Perkins of Australia silver in 1:57.34.
“I’m really happy with this performance,” Daley said. “I was stuck at 2:01 for a little bit so it was really nice to break that. I think in my race, my front end went really well. My first and second 50 were good and that’s the fastest I’ve been out in a 200 free.”
Daniel Diehl of the U.S. broke the meet record for the second time during the men’s 100-m backstroke in 53.27. Teammate Josh Zuchowski finished behind him in 54.51. Loïc
Courville-Fortin of Montreal finished sixth in 56.60.
Canada placed fourth in the mixed 4×100-m medley relay in 3:53.08. The U.S. clocked in 3:46.83 for gold followed by Australia out-touching Japan in 3:50.51 for silver. The Canadian swimmers were Ashley McMillan of Penticton, B.C., Brayden Taivassalo of Markham, Ont., Ella Jansen of Burlington, Ont., and Paul Dardis of Calgary.
Head Coach Carl Simonson is excited by the team’s performances. After bringing the swimmers together back in June at the Mel Zajac Junior International Swim Meet, the team is now focusing on what each athlete is best at to help them continue to improve their performances over a long summer season.
“I thought we had a good start,” Simonson said. “We came off a pretty strong morning where we were able to advance into A finals in good racing positions. When you can pull a medal at an international meet, it’s a good day in itself.”
Other Canadian finalists were: Katie Schroeder of Langley, B.C. placing fifth in the 100-m backstroke in 1:01.65, Emma Finlin of Edmonton finishing sixth in the 800-m freestyle in 8:44.99, and Eric Dupre of Winnipeg sixth in the 1500-m freestyle in 15:50.81.
Full results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/Jr%20PanPacs/2022/
Livestream: https://www.usaswimming.org/utility/landing-pages/streaming
Nathan White
Senior Manager, Communications, Swimming Canada
Gestionnaire supérieur des communications, Natation Canada
t.+1 613-260-1348x2002 | m.+1 613-866-7946|nwhite@swimming.ca