Canada’s Aurélie Rivard secured a bronze medal during the Para Pan Pacific Championships held in Walnut, California. Rivard, a 13-time Paralympic medalist and three-time Paralympic champion in the S10 400-meter freestyle, finished third in the women’s 400m freestyle final. The event featured athletes from the S6-11 and S13 classifications.
The 30-year-old swimmer from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, accumulated 933 points by clocking 4:37.04, placing second. The gold was claimed by Australia’s Lakeisha Patterson, S9 category, with 986 points and a time of 4:40.35. American Ali Truwit, an S10 athlete, initially touched the wall first in 4:31.52 but earned 971 points.
Mary Jibb from Bracebridge, Ontario, finished eighth in 4:47.89, securing 848 points. Points in the competition are awarded based on the proximity of a swimmer’s time to the specific class’s world record standard.
In other Canadian results, Nicholas Bennett from Parksville, British Columbia, finished fourth in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB4-6, 8-9, 11, 13-14 final. The event witnessed Japan’s Naohide Yamaguchi, the 2020 SB14 Paralympic champion, setting a world record with a time of 1:02.38.
Reid Maxwell from St. Albert, Alberta, achieved fifth place in the men’s 400m freestyle S6-9, S11, S13 category. The Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships can be watched live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, with Day 3 preliminaries starting Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by the final session at 8:30 p.m. ET. Aurélie Rivard expressed her excitement after claiming the bronze medal and looks forward to her future performances.
