The Pan Pacific championships witnessed contrasting performances from Canadian swimmers Taylor Ruck and Summer McIntosh in Irvine, California on Friday night.
Ruck clinched a silver medal in the women’s 100m butterfly event and later secured a bronze as part of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, marking her fourth and fifth medals of the tournament, respectively.
In the 100m butterfly, the 26-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., set a personal best time of 56.71 seconds, coming in second behind American Gretchen Walsh, who finished in 55.15 seconds. Australian Alexandria Perkins claimed the bronze with a time of 56.75 seconds.
Reflecting on her performance, Ruck shared, “This one [the women’s 100m butterfly] was a lot of fun. I feel like I got good rest between prelims and finals, and did all the things just to try and feel relaxed, and just trust my body was going to do what it did.”
Meanwhile, McIntosh faced disappointment after she failed to qualify for the A final in the women’s 400m freestyle event despite winning the B final. McIntosh took full responsibility for the outcome, admitting to a “complete misjudgment” in the morning heats.
Expressing her frustration, McIntosh stated, “I was very mad at myself and I take full responsibility for missing that A final. It was a complete misjudgment on my part, it’s something that should never happen. I promise that I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. This meet is definitely not going the way I wanted it to go.”
Despite the setback, McIntosh rebounded by securing a gold in the 400m individual medley after finishing second in the women’s 200m freestyle event earlier in the competition.
On the men’s side, Canadians Blake Tierney and Ethan Ekk claimed silver and bronze, respectively, in the men’s 200m backstroke event. Tierney finished second with a time of 1:56.29, followed by Ekk at 1:56.85. Yumeki Kojima of Japan clinched the gold medal in 1:55.38.
In the relay events, Ruck guided the Canadian women to a bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay, while the Canadian men’s 4x100m freestyle team narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth.
The U.S. women’s team secured gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, while the Australian women and U.S. men also claimed medals in their respective relay events.