Five Races To Watch At The Junior Pan Pacific Championships

Photo Credit: Griffin Scott

MAUI, Hawaii, August 26. JUST a few days after the conclusion of the Pan Pacific Championships, the Junior Pan Pacific Championships start tomorrow at the Kihei Aquatic Center in Maui. The Americans are looking strong on the psych sheet, but they’ll be challenged as usual by the Australians and Japanese. Here are five races to watch at the meet, which kicks off with prelims at 3pm ET.

1. Women’s 200 Free
The first event of the meet is shaping up to be a great one as the top six swimmers in the women’s 200 free are separated by only six tenths of a second. Katie Drabot of the United States leads the way at 1:59.32, with Chelsea Gillett of Australia sitting sixth at 1:59.92. It looks to be a showdown between the US and Australia in this event as the Americans have four of the top seven and Australia has three; both teams’ 800 free relays will be stacked and that should be a great race as well.

2. Men’s 100 Breast
After top seed Connor Hoppe of the United States, who enters the meet with a 1:01.84, the men’s 100 breast is wide open, with the next 10 competitors separated by less than a second. Japan has three swimmers in the top five (Rintaro Okubo, Yuya Hinomoto and Ryuya Mura), Canada has three in the top nine (Matthew Ackman, James Dergousoff and James Guest) and the US has three in the top 12 (Hoppe, Todd Owen and Alex Evdokimov), which could make for a very interesting and well-balanced championship heat.

3. Women’s 200 Back
On paper, the women’s 200 back looks to be one of the closest races of the meet; at least nine swimmers have a legitimate shot to win, with only one second separating the top seed (Japan’s Anna Konishi, 2:11.88) from the ninth seed (Canada’s Mackenzie Glover, 2:12.84). Japan, the United States, China, Korea, Australia and Canada are all represented in the top 10, which makes it one of the more diverse events of the meet as well.

4. Women’s 400 Free Relay
The US and Australia have had a lot of great battles in the 400 free relay throughout history, and another one may be in store for this week. The US enters the meet with the top time of 3:41.50, but they’re followed closely by Australia at 3:41.76. Australia’s relay could consist of Shayna Jack (54.80), Chelsea Gillett (55.42), Lucy McJannett (55.53) and Sophie Taylor (56.01), while the Americans could go with Amy Bilquist (54.85), Stanzi Moseley (55.03), Katie Drabot (55.73) and Claire Adams (55.89). Both squads are loaded with talent, and it could come down to the final few meters.

5. Men’s 800 Free Relay
Meanwhile, the US men have become accustomed to facing off for gold against Australia in the men’s 800 free relay, but this time they’ll have a new country to fend off: Japan. The Americans (7:18.11) and Japanese (7:18.59) enter the meet as the top two seeds, and both countries will be chasing Australia’s 2009 meet record of 7:17.79. The US relay could feature Townley Haas, Blake Pieroni, Liam Egan and Aidan Burns, who are all swimming the individual 200 and are ranked first, second, third and fifth.

 

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