The Pan Pacific championships saw Canadian swimmers Taylor Ruck and Summer McIntosh experience two very different outcomes on Friday night in Irvine, Calif. Ruck won her fourth and fifth medals, respectively, of the competition. Meanwhile, McIntosh — in a shocking turn of events — failed to qualify for the women's 400m freestyle final.
Canadians Tierney, Ekk claim silver and bronze in men's 200m backstroke
CBC Sports
·
Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Taylor Ruck wins 5th medal at Pan Pacs, Summer McIntosh has sights set on 200m IM August 15| Duration 10:35
The Pan Pacific championships saw Canadian swimmers Taylor Ruck and Summer McIntosh experience two very different outcomes on Friday night in Irvine, Calif.
Ruck won a silver medal in the women ’s 100-metre butterfly event. She returned later in the night to claim bronze as part of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team. It was her fourth and fifth medals, respectively, of the competition.
In the 100m butterfly, the 26-year-old from Kelowna, B.C. touched the wall in a personal-best time of 56.71 seconds, finishing behind American Gretchen Walsh, who won in a time of 55.15.
Australian Alexandria Perkins finished with the bronze medal after racing in 56.75.
WATCH | Ruck delivers silver medal: Taylor Ruck swims to 100m butterfly silver at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships August 14| Duration 4:37
"This one [the women’s 100m butterfly] was a lot of fun," Ruck told CBC Sports reporter Devin Heroux. "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."
On Wednesday, Ruck kicked off the Canadian medal count with a third-place finish in the women's 50m butterfly final before collecting a bronze in the 100m backstroke. She followed those events with a bronze as part of the women’s 4x100m medley relay team.
WATCH | Ruck claims butterfly medal: Taylor Ruck talks about winning her 4th Pan Pacific medal August 14| Duration 2:46
'I was very mad at myself'
For McIntosh, things couldn't have gone worse.
The 19-year-old from Toronto did not hide her feelings after winning the B final of the women’s 400m freestyle event.
That’s because the current world-record holder, in a stunning turn of events during the morning heats, failed to qualify for the A final.
McIntosh took full responsibility for the for “my misjudgment in this morning's heats.”
“I was very mad at myself and I take full responsibility for missing that A final,” McIntosh told Heroux. “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."
WATCH | McIntosh not happy with missing out on 400m free final: After winning the B race Summer McIntosh is still mad at herself for missing 400m freestyle final August 14| Duration 1:47
McIntosh placed second in the women's 200m freestyle event on Wednesday, finishing behind Australian Lani Pallister. She rebounded on Thursday to capture gold in the 400m individual medley.
In the 400m A final on Friday, Pallister won the gold medal in a time of three minutes 58.42 seconds. American great Katie Ledecky finished second in 4:00.15, while Erika Fairweather, of New Zealand, placed third in 4:02.35.
As for McIntosh, the Canadian is still trying to process what went wrong in the heats.
"I don’t think I really have the words for it right now," she said. "I think it’s a lot of frustration and, you know, I’ll definitely have to be doing a lot after the meet is over to figure out where I’ve gone wrong in training. I know I’ve trained as best as I can to prepare for this. It’s a couple of weeks of preparation after getting sick [at the Canadian trials] and things like that, but obviously there is no excuse. It sucks that I missed that final."
McIntosh will have little time to dwell on her disappointing day. She'll race in the 200m IM on Saturday, an event where she's the world-record holder and is both the Olympic and world champion.
Canadians Tierney, Ekk reach podium
On the men’s side, Canadians Blake Tierney and Ethan Ekk captured silver and bronze, respectively, in the men’s 200m backstroke.
Toronto’s Tierney finished second in 1:56.29. He was followed by Ekk, who completed the race in 1:56.85.
“It’s pretty special that we’re both on the podium,” Tierney told Heroux.”
Japan’s Yumeki Kojima won the gold medal in a time of 1:55.38.
Tierney is having a breakthrough event. On Wednesday, he won the men's 100m backstroke.
It was the first international gold medal of Tierney's career.
"I had a good year of training. Training pays off," Tierney said.
WATCH | Tierney, Ekk go silver, bronze: Blake Tierney takes silver and Ethan Ekk captures bronze in the 200m backstroke August 15| Duration 5:56
Ruck claims 5th medal in relay event
Leading off the first leg, Ruck guided Canada to a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay event.
Ruck, along with teammates Mary-Sophie Harvey, Leah Tigert and Leilani Fack finished in a time of 3:36.44.
WATCH | Women take relay bronze: Canadian women swim to Pan Pacific bronze in 4x100m freestyle relay August 15| Duration 5:44
The U.S., made up of Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Simone Manuel claimed gold in 3:29.32.
The Australian team (Meg Harris, Alexandria Perkins, Milla Jansen and Olivia Wunsch), finished with the silver medal in 3:31.11.
The Canadian men’s 4x100m freestyle team couldn’t match what the women accomplished.
The team of Ruslan Gaziev, Yuri Kisil, Finlay Knox and Javier Acevedo pushed for a podium spot but untimely placed fourth in 3:14.11.
The U.S., (3:09.01) won gold, followed by Australia (3:09.57) and Japan (3:13.53).
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.