Canadians steal the show

SINGAPORE — It was the final race of the evening at the 5th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, and the spotlight was focused on powerhouses Australia, Russia and the United States in the 4x100m freestyle mixed relay final at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

But it was Canada who upset the odds last night, as the quartet of Javier Acevedo, Markus Thormeyer, Penny Oleksiak and Taylor Ruck finished first to steal the gold from their rivals.

Despite a slow start, the Canadians fought back in the final 200m to touch the wall in a new world junior record time of 3min 27.21s.

Australia finished in 3min 28.59s to secure the silver, while Russia (3min 28.79s) took home the bronze.

The gold was also Taylor’s second of the night, after she finished first in the women’s 100m freestyle in a new championship record time of 53.92s.

“I felt really good in the first 50m of the race, and then I just had to maintain my pace before going all out the last 25m,” said Taylor, 15, who counts American Missy Franklin as her role model. “I’m really pleased to have medalled in two events today. It was especially nice to win the relay because we were going up against a lot of top swimmers and it feels awesome that we managed to come out on top.”

Earlier in the evening, Australian Minna Atherton continued her domination of the backstroke events as she clinched gold in the women’s 200m race.

Minna, who set a new junior world record en route to gold in the 100m backstroke on Wednesday, led from start to finish to win gold in a new championship record of 2min 09.11s. China’s Liu Yaxin (2min 09.44s) and Taylor (2min 09.49s) finished second and third.

The soft-spoken teenager, who has been training alongside four-time world champion Emily Seebohm under head coach David Lush at the Brisbane Grammar School, said: “For now, I’ll just keep my focus on trying to go as fast as I can and hopefully qualify for Rio 2016. It’s been really great training with Emily Seebohm, she’s a really great swimmer and I’ve learnt a lot from her so far.”

The third day of action at the world junior meet saw Russia claiming their third gold of the championship through Daniil Pakhomov, who finished first in the men’s 100m butterfly in a championship record time of 52.58s, while China’s Yang Jintong clocked a time of 7min 55.19s to secure top spot in the men’s 800m freestyle event.

Hoong Enqi became the first Singaporean to progress past the heats at this year’s championships, with her time of 27.59s in the women’s 50m butterfly securing her a spot in the semi-finals.

But Enqi, who won a relay gold at the SEA Games, missed out on the final as her time of 27.32s in the semis placed her in joint 13th.

“I was 0.01s away from reaching my personal best timing so I’m quite disappointed as I was aiming to beat that,” said Enqi.

“But I still have other events (50back, 100fly and 50m freestyle) coming up so I’ll not let this affect me.

“Nonetheless, I’m very happy to have taken part in the semi-finals because it’s a one-time opportunity.”