Skip to content

Red Deer’s Rebecca Smith adds a silver at World Junior Championships

Local swimming product Rebecca Smith found her way to the podium again on Monday at the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis.
8287515_web1_IMG_4299
Rebecca Smith ended the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis with a silver medal. (Submitted photo)

Local swimming product Rebecca Smith found her way to the podium again on Monday at the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis.

She notched on a silver on the final day of competition in the women’s 100 metre butterfly. Smith, 17, finished the race in personal best time of 58.07, just behind gold medal winner Rikako Ikee of Japan.

“It felt great, I’ve been waiting for the 100 fly all week. To come out with a best time on the last day, I’m really happy about that,” Smith said in a Swimming Canada press release.

She also won bronze in the 50m butterfly Saturday.

Now training out of Toronto with iconic Canadian swim coach Ben Titley and Olympic star Penny Oleksiak, Smith also teamed up to capture gold on Sunday in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Oleksiak, Smith, Taylor Ruck and Kayla Sanchez won in a world junior record time of three minutes and 36.19 seconds.

“This team is so strong as a group and we’re all so close, so we’re all swimming fast and building on each other’s success and doing well,” Smith told Swimming Canada.

“We’re doing so well right now and we’re all still learning so we can all still improve.”

With individual medals from Smith and Ruck combined with a 4x100 medley relay gold on Monday, the Canadians boasted 15 medals, their best ever total at the World Junior Championships.

“The 2017 World Junior Championships team continues to show progress in the specifics of what we’re asking them to do,” said Ken McKinnon, Swimming Canada’s National Development Coach in a press release.

“They’ve been able to swim fast in the prelims sessions, faster in the semifinals, and at their best in the finals. We’ve been extremely successful this week, it’s something we’ve planned for and worked on.”

byron.hackett@reddeeradvocate.com



Byron Hackett

About the Author: Byron Hackett

Byron has been the sports reporter at the advocate since December of 2016. He likes to spend his time in cold hockey arenas accompanied by luke warm, watered down coffee.
Read more