Canada wins two bronze to open world junior swimming championships

July, 09, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico – Barbara Jardin of Montreal won the bronze medal in the women’s 400-metre individual medley on Tuesday then helped Canada to another bronze in the 4X200 freestyle relay at the world junior swimming championships.

In the women’s 400 IM, Dagny Knutson of the U.S., won the gold medal clocking 4:43.49 with Ellen Fullerton of the U.S., second in 4:45.71 and Jardin was third in a personal best 4:49.10. Jardin was just relieved to be in the final after placing seventh in the preliminaries

‘’I’m surprised to win a medal,’’ said Jardin. ‘’I had a horrible swim in the prelims. So my focus in the final was on technique and to be in the race. I was pleased with my race but my butterfly could have been a lot better. It isn’t so strong right now.’’

Forty minutes later, Alexandra Gabor of Whitehorse, Jardin and Hillary Bell and Paige Schultz, both of Toronto, finished third in the women’s 4X200 freestyle relay in 8:10.08. The foursome had lowered the championship record in the preliminaries clocking first in 8:12.33.

However in the final, the U.S., smashed the meet record lowering it to 8:04.40 with Britain second in 8:06.52.

‘’Our goal in the final was to go below 8:12,’’ said Jardin. ‘’We couldn’t ask for more than that. We had a few practices together leading up and we felt confident we could get a really strong result. Everyone’s goal was to keep our team in medal contention.’’

In the men’s 4X100 freestyle, Canada was seventh with Hassaan Abdel-Khalik of Etobicoke, Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont., Curtis Lutsch of Calgary and Dominique Massie-Martel of Pointe-Claire, Que.

In semifinal action, Amanda Reason of Windsor, Ont., was the top qualifier for the women’s 50 breaststroke clocking a championship and Senior National record 31.25 seconds.

Michael Cai is ranked 4th in the 100 Breaststroke going into finals and in the process broke the BC provincial record for 15-17 year old boys (formerly Matt Huang) with his 1:02.95.

Also qualifying for finals in Tuesday’s semis were Swanston in the 100 backstroke as well as Tess Simpson of Cornwall, Ont., and Olympic team member Lindsay Seeman of Newmarket, Ont., in the women’s 100 backstroke.

Competition continues Wednesday.

Full results at: http://www.resultadosfmn.org.mx/CMJ2008/