Sydney Pickrem Lowers Canadian 200 IM Record In 2:09.07

2018 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, August 9 – Tuesday, August 14, 2018
• Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo, Japan
• Meet site
• Psych Sheet
• Start Lists
• Meet Results

Sydney Pickrem broke her own Canadian National Record in the women’s 200 IM to win silver at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo, clocking a time of 2:09.07. That broke her previous mark of 2:09.17 from the 2017 World Championships.

Pickrem was a surprising scratch out of all three of her entries on day 1 of the competition, including the event in which she was the World Championship bronze medalist last year, the 400 IM. That raised a few questions on her health/form here in Tokyo, but she showed up in the 200 IM and showed she was in premier shape.

In her first swim of the meet she had a very solid prelim showing of 2:10.07, just outside of her season-best of 2:09.92, setting herself up for a big swim in the final.

She steadily moved through the field, turning 4th after the fly, 3rd after back and breast, and used a 30.74 final 50 to move by Japan’s Miho Teramura to grab the silver in 2:09.07. Teramura’s teammate Yui Ohashi, the 2017 World silver medalist in this event, won gold in a new meet record of 2:08.16.

SPLIT COMPARISON, WOMEN’S 200 IM CANADIAN RECORD

Comparing her splits, Pickrem was nearly identical to her splits from last summer on back, breast and free, making the biggest gain on fly where she was almost two-tenths faster.

Pickrem moves up from 6th to 4th in the world for 2018.