Yukoner wins bronze at world junior swim meet

The second FINA World Junior Swimming Championships concluded Sunday in Monterrey, Mexico.
The meet featured 588 young swimmers from around the globe.
Competitors were between 14 to 17 years of age for girls, and between 15 to 18 years of age for boys.
Alexandra Gabor, 15, was the only Yukon swimmer on the Canadian team, along with coach Marek Poplawski. She swam the first leg of the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay en route to a bronze medal. She was also the anchor for the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay which won bronze.
In the 200-m freestyle, her only individual event, she qualified for the finals and finished sixth overall.
Also, three Whitehorse Glacier Bears competed in their first open water competition held recently in Abbotsford, BC. Isabelle Parkkari, 11, finished 7th in the girls 12 and under 1.5k event. Hayley Bielz swam to a fifth place finish in the girls 5k event, while Tanner Cassidy was eighth in the boys 5k swim. The three combined points to place eighth out of 14 teams in the overall standings.
Open water swimming has been added as an Olympic event, and it is hoped more young Canadian swimmers will show an interest in developing this aspect of the sport.
Other upcoming meets: Bronwyn Pasloski and Alexandra Gabor travel to Winnipeg for the Canadian Senior National Championships this coming weekend and then to the Canadian Age Group National Championships in Calgary the following weekend along with Brice Harding, Tanner Cassidy and Spencer Sumanik.
Pasloski and Gabor will also participate in the Tri-Nations Cup in Quebec City August 1-2, which features swimmers from Canada, Great Britain and France.
This is followed by the North American Challenge Cup in Edmonton the following weekend, which includes swimmers from Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Story provided by Alice Purser .