------
DAY 6 FINALS =>
------
2018 furdette Zoe gets the gold with a 2:25.68, just short of her 2:25.46 PB that was done back @ 2016 Junior Pan Pacs.
2019 recruit Ella Nelson has a fab swim to earn the silver in a new lifetime best of 2:27.04 (prev = 2:27.33 from 2017 Nationals).
Ella Nelson &
Zoe Bartel------
2020 recruit Carson Foster smashes his 1:59.13 best from 2017 Junior Nationals, laying down a 1:57.87 to come away with the silver medal!
------
Regan drops yet another personal record, significantly lowering her 59.30 from semis down to a 59.03, finishing 6th in what's an off event for our
2020 recruit.
Rikako Ikee (JPN) with the expected win, in a championship record of 57.25 but doesn't approach her world class 56.86 PB.
Rebeca Smith (CAN) does improve on her prev best of 58.11 from the 2017 Mare Nostrum series (that 58.11 also = Rikako's old
Championship record achieved in yesterday's semis), swimming a 58.07 to easily claim #2.
------
Rikako (JPN) wins in a championship record of 24.59, very close to her own best of 24.57.
2018 Horns commit Grace Ariola is the only other to dip under the 25 sec barrier, accomplishing a new 24.82 PB to get silver.
Grace's prev record was her 24.87 from last night's semis.
Kayla Sanchez (CAN) improves her 25.35 from semis to a new lifetime best of 25.33 to place 7th.
------
Baby :bear: Reece cuts a sizeable chunk off his 28.02 PB from semis, goes 27.71 to get in @ 4th, just missing a medal.
USA teammate
Michael Andrew, who went pro at the tender age of 14, does a 27.39 PB by 0.01 sec to get on the podium with a 3rd place finish.
------
2018 furdette Taylor just out-touches Hungarian distance ace
Ajna Kesely by 0.02 sec for the gold.
Ajna has now won 3 silvers in addition to her gold.
Ruck's 1:57.08 handily bests her old 1:57.87 PB from 2015 World Juniors @ Singapore, which also stands as the prev Championship record.
Fellow Canadian
Rebecca Smith is 6th, her 1:59.88 quite a bit off her best of 1:58.59 from 2017 Canadian Trials.
2018 recruit Easop Lee (KOR), who has indicated that Stanford is her dream school, finishes 8th in 2:01.19. Her lifetime best remains a 1:58.64 from this May.
------
USA pulls off a mild upset over the Russian favourites to touch first at the final wall, in a new World Junior record of 3:36.15!
Reece matches his 59.32 breast split from the Mixed Medley relay squad, who had snagged a silver, to help propel his team to gold here.
------
USA:
Lucie Nordmann,
Grace Ariola (back row),
Zoe Bartel,
Regan Smith (front row) With Canada being such a massive & overwhelming fave thanks to having 2 Olympians (
Penny &
Ruck) on the back half of their dominating relay squad, the women of Team USA finds it that much more challenging trying to emulate their male counterparts' "surprise" victory from just moments earlier.
Canada:
Penny Oleksiak,
Taylor Ruck (back row),
Jade Hannah,
Faith Knelson (front row) The American women do valiantly give it a heck of a go, powered by
Regan's reproducing the 59.11 WJR time from her
100m Back individual win, with
Jade (CAN) stumbling a bit in her 1:00.68 leadoff (relative to her dropping massive PBs at this meet earlier on), to provide a glimpse of hope for USA...
Zoe &
Lucie also chips in to maintain the American squad's lead that, however, is rapidly dwindling after
Oleksiak takes to the water on the fly portion.
Ultimately, in spite of
Grace's admirable 54.25 finish in the anchor spot,
Taylor unleashes an unstoppable 52.93 leg to sew up a 3rd women's relay gold sweep for Canada, in a new World Junior record of 3:58.38!
Actually both Team USA & Japan's times also better the Russian's prev record of 4:01.05 from Singapore 2015.
Freya (GBR) the only freestyler to bust out a split comparable to
Taylor's, hers a rather impressive 52.99 anchor as GB gets 4th.
Baby Bear Alex Sumner earns her 2nd
SILVER medal of the meet
:, this time in a relay, having led Team USA off on the backstroke leg in this event in the prelims session.
2019 Hoosiers commit Emily Weiss(breast),
2019 recruit Kelly Pash (fly) &
2020 recruit Alex Walsh (free) were also on that morning heats squad.
------