CALGARY – Carter Buck of London, Ont., Justin Fotherby of Penticton, B.C.,and Regan Rathwell of Ottawa each collected their second individual gold medals on Thursday at the 2019 Canadian Junior Swimming Championships.
In the boys 14-15 age group, Buck won the 100-m backstroke in 59.42 seconds just ahead of Loic Courville Fortin of Repentigny, Que., second in 59.58 and Yutong Wu of Surrey, B.C., third in 59.69.
‘’I feel good,’’ said Buck, the 200 backstroke winner on Wednesday. ‘’It was a tight race and my time was OK. I would have liked to have gone faster but with it this close it was more about the race than the time.’’
Fortherby placed first in the 400-m individual medley in a dominant performance to add to his win in the 800 freestyle on day one. Lochlan Rogers of Qualicum Beach, B.C. took the 100-m freestyle in 53.01.
Rathwell won convincingly in her 15-17 100-m backstroke in 1:01.93 with Ella Varga of Calgary second in 1:03.27 and Raili Kary of Sault Ste Marie, Ont., third in 1:03.60.
Other winners in the age group were Kyla Leibel of Red Deer, Alta., in the 100 free and Ashley McMillan of Penticton in the 400 IM. Leibel is preparing for the Pan Am Games.
‘’This is a chance for me to get off the blocks and get some good times in before the Games,’’ said Leibel. ‘’I just want to get that feeling of being in race mode.’’
The winners in the boys 16-18 age group were Maximilian Hunger of Pointe-Claire, Que., in the 100 free, Jacob Gallant of Fredericton in the 400 IM and Tayden de Pol of Nanaimo, B.C. in the 100 back.
‘’I had a really tough swim in the prelims and I was feeling pretty tired for this final,’’ said Gallant. ‘’I just wanted to get in there and race my heart out and coming out on top was great.’’
Finally in the girls 13-14 group, winners were Camryn Stannard of Nanaimo in the 100 free, Meghan Berrigan of Edmonton in the 400 IM and Amy Pan of the U.S., in the 100 back.
‘’It was a rough race, I had a hard time,’’ said Berrigan. ‘’But I guess I didn’t do too bad.’’
In the 4X200 freestyle relays, Pointe-Claire Swim Club took the men’s race and Edmonton Keyano was first on the women’ side.
In the club standings, Pointe-Claire leads with 794 points, Edmonton Keyano is second at 677 and the University of Calgary Swim Club third at 495.
Competition continues through to Monday at the Repsol Sport Centre.
Full results: Meet Results: 2019 Canadian Junior Championships
Renee Kardash Photography will be selling pictures on Sunday July 28th at Repsol Sport Centre. For any questions, please contact Renee Kardash on Instagram or on her website. Original article by Swimming Canada can be found here.