2024 JUNIOR PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
- August 21-24, 2024
- Canberra, Australia
- LCM (50 meters)
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- All Days Prelims Heat Sheet
- Prelims Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2
- Finals Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2
BOYS 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY – FINALS
- World Junior Record: 7:08.37 – USA (2019)
- Meet Record: 7:13.07 – Australia (2022)
- All Comers Record: 7:03.24 – USA (2007)
RESULTS:
- USA ‘A’ (Mijatovic, Clontz, Enoch, Zhao) – 7:15.82
- Australia ‘A’ (Cross, Collins, Fackerell, Da Silva) – 7:17.66
- Canada ‘A’ (Ekk, Kim, Miao, Norman) – 7:17.73
- Japan ‘A’ (Kuroda, Abe, Tsujimori, Nishikawa) – 7:24.43
- Singapore ‘A’ (Yap, Leong, Cheng, Pang) – 7:44.28
- South Korea ‘A’ (Won, Kim, Park, Lee) – 7:45.96
- USA ‘B’ (Hammer, Robinson, Shackell, Ellis) – 7:27.47
- Canada ‘B’ (Brennan, Florez, Winterborn, Kirk) – 7:28.92
- Singapore ‘B’ (Tan, Chin. Koh, Ang) – 8:10.71
Leading off the Canadian boys 4×200 free relay this evening at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacs in Canberra, 17-year-old Ethan Ekk broke a 15-year-old Canadian Age Group Record in the 200 free. Ekk led his team off in 1:48.68, dipping under the record of 1:48.74, which was set back in August of 2009 by Hassaan Abdel-Khalik.
Ekk, who lives in Florida in the US and competes for Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club, swam a very consistent race tonight to break the record. He was 25.85 on the opening 50, then split 27.51, 27.63, and 27.69 respectively the rest of the way, for a 53.36 on the first 100 and a 55.32 on the back half.
Ekk entered the meet with a career best of 1:49.15, which he swam in May of this year at the Canadian Swimming Trials. He then earned the silver medal in the individual 200 free on the first night of the meet, posting a new personal best of 1:48.76. He was just 0.02 seconds off the record at that point, and he managed to drop another 0.08 seconds tonight.
Here is a split comparison between Ekk’s 1:48.76 in the individual 200 free and his 1:48.68 leading off the relay tonight:
| Split | Ethan Ekk – Relay Lead-Off (8/22) | Ethan Ekk – Individual 200 Free (8/21) |
| 50m | 25.85 | 25.81 |
| 100m | 53.36 (27.51) | 53.69 (27.88) |
| 150m | 1:20.99 (27.63) | 1:21.32 (27.63) |
| 200m | 1:48.68 (27.69) | 1:48.76 (27.44) |
| FINAL TIME | 1:48.68 | 1:48.76 |
He didn’t swim the race in a hugely different manner tonight than he did last night, however, he was out a little faster tonight. Ekk flipped in 53.36 at the 100m turn tonight, 0.33 seconds ahead of the 53.69 he was at in the individual race. He just so happened to have the same exact split on the 3rd 50 in both races, 27.69, which again left him 0.33 seconds ahead of his pace from last night in his race tonight. Ekk was a touch slower coming home on the final 50 tonight, however, he still managed to be ahead of his pace, setting a new career mark and breaking the record.
Hassaan Abdel-Khalik would go on to compete at the University of Michigan in the US, where he was an NCAA All-American in the 500 yard freestyle in 2010, and was a member of a pair of All-American 800 free relays.
Good on him, love it when young kids stand up on a big stage and say “count on me to give you my best under pressure”. Shows just what this sport means to them and their country 🙌.
Assuming the downvotes are Americans who just want Ethan to get in line and hope that the USA might need him for a relay or something maybe a notch or 2 down from the Olympics.Are you in favour of telling the 44 athletes who are foreign born to go back and compete for their birthplaces?Do you think Joel Embiid should be kicked off the basketball team and told to go compete for Cameroon?
Beating a Hassaan Abdel-Khalik Age Group Record is no easy feat. Those things are legendary around here.
Mixed feelings about this. Should a kid who has never lived here, likely doesn’t know the national anthem nor how to dress for snowy weather, displace a homegrown Canadian from the record books? Summer Mcintosh at least grew up in Toronto before moving abroad; as a big fan of Canadian swimming I’m finding it hard to feel a sense of enthusiastic support. Felt the same about Kharun’s medals this summer. It’s cool I guess, but doesn’t get me fired up the same way.
Dude preach. Like I get why they do it, don’t hate them for it, but feels weird to celebrate success for Team Canada driven by people who didn’t come up in our age group system. I remember reading that Missy Franklin had a path to represent Canada if she wanted, and like yeah would have like quadrupled our medal count back then, but would have been a hollow victory in alot of ways.
Laon will break it soon enough.
It happens in every sport.The USA had 44 members on their Paris Olympic team who were born in another country.There has been many cases of Canadian athletes playing for other countries in lots of sports especially winter sports where spots are harder to obtain.Kharun is an example of an athlete who kind of falls in the middle.At the time of his committal to Canada,he was not an American citizen, he did not have an American passport and had applied for neither.He was born in Canada,held a Canadian passport and was a citizen.Many people in the world are sort of in between.I lived outside of Canada for more than 30 years, many of those years in China.Am I now considered to… Read more »
Swim Canada is more than fully on board; not much one can say or take issue with. It’s the future; just look at this Junior Pan pac team alone and how many unattached swimmers are present.
McIntosh moved to the US to train. It’s no different than Canadian kids that go to the US to swim or play any other sports in college. No one in questioning that they still aren’t Canadian. Summer just did the same thing at an earlier age.
Not sure why you think she is at all relevant in this particular situation.
We have no way of knowing what his family’s connection to Canada is like. Maybe they keep a close connection to Canadian culture/sports. Maybe his dad is a huge Leafs fan. Maybe they celebrate two Thanksgiving weekends. Maybe he has been excited to swim for Canada since he was little.
Or maybe not! But faster swimming is good for Canada. Taylor, Sydney, Sophie and others have all helped grow the women’s team in Canada for a while, and even though they were all raised in the US, they all have seemed to rep the Maple Leaf well and their contributions have helped push swimming forward in Canada. Ethan should get the same opportunity to do so. Will we care… Read more »
I believe both of the Ekk parents were from BC and they moved to the US for work opportunities.
Parents are Canadian and let me tell you they don’t even hint to people they are from Canada. That says a lot. Congratulations to Ethan on a HOLLOW victory. Hopefully he now knows Canada’s national anthem. Opportunistic EKK’s driven by desperate parents.
Womp womp, if you don’t want him swimming for Canada maybe they should produce a faster swimmer.
If it makes Canadian swimming faster then why should it matter? It’ll bring domestic swimmers up too with faster times and more competition.
““I think we’ll probably stick together and all be on one team,” Bella said.
Then Owen interjected.
“If I have the chance to go to the U.S., I feel like I would take that,” he said.”
I for one was guilty of seeing this quote as a negative. However, this family showed up at the Canadian open when 1/2 of Canada’s carded athletes didn’t! This is the future and I see so many names no one is complaining about at this particular meet unattached. Is it because he is killing?
Is because he is taking the spot of home-trained athletes and taking funds and resources needed for swimmers across the country. Swimming doesn’t have the same funding as other sports in Canada. Shame on them, but congrats on a HOLLOW victory.
lethal back half 🤫