Sydney Pickrem Knocks Off Four-Year-Old Canadian Record In 400 IM

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH #10

In a session that had no shortage of record swims, London Roar captain Sydney Pickrem got in on the action in the women’s 400 IM, resetting a four-year-old Canadian Record in a time of 4:25.90.

Pickrem’s swim broke the previous mark of 4:26.42, set by Mary-Sophie Harvey back in December of 2016 at the Ontario Junior International meet in Toronto. Harvey is competing in the ISL this year for Energy Standard, but has strayed away from racing the 400 IM in recent years.

Split Comparison

Harvey, 2016 Pickrem, 2020
29.91 29.50
34.09 (1:04.00) 33.02 (1:02.52)
33.92 (1:37.92) 34.30 (1:36.82)
33.22 (2:11.14) 33.35 (2:10.17)
37.88 (2:49.02) 36.60 (2:46.77)
37.70 (3:26.72) 37.27 (3:24.04)
30.16 (3:56.88) 31.68 (3:55.72)
29.54 (4:26.42) 30.18 (4:25.90)

Pickrem, 23, set her previous best time during last season’s ISL final, going 4:26.55 to place second behind Cali Condor Melanie Margalis.

A Texas A&M grad, Pickrem has only gotten better as this season has gone on, clocking 4:37.31 in Match 2, 4:30.96 in Match 4, and then 4:27.37 in Match 8 before her record-breaking swim during Match 10.

Pickrem won the race by over three and a half seconds, with Cali’s Hali Flickinger the runner-up in 4:29.52. Margalis was absent after leaving the ISL bubble, and won’t compete in the playoffs.

Pickrem now ranks third in the ISL this season behind Margalis (4:25.48) and Tokyo’s Yui Ohashi (4:25.53), and also jumps up from 16th to 12th all-time.

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Bill G
4 years ago

Interesting that Mary-Sophie Harvey hasn’t swum the 400 IM here. I saw that she swam the 400 IM in at least one ISL 2019 stop. Across her 4 2020 matches, In ISL 2020 she’s swum the 50 back (3rd! in match 7 ), 100 IM / 200 IM, 200 Free / Fly / Back and some 100m free legs in relays. Other than a poor match 1, she’s been able to grab points in her events.

Harvey doesn’t appear to have an obvious path to making the Canadian Olympic team absent building on her previous 400 IM strength. Perhaps on the 4×200 free relay or getting the FINA A standard in the 200 fly (where depth in Canada isn’t great)?

NJones
Reply to  Bill G
4 years ago

I think I saw a post where her training options were very thin until she arrived there, so the fact she is progressing thru this past month in a handful events is promising.
400im, 200im will be very deep and tough at 🇨🇦 trials. 200fly does seem to be the best path for her and she did win it at world champs trials could yrs back. She has also been on a 4×2 worlds team before so a depth option there also possible.

JohnE
Reply to  Bill G
4 years ago

Mary Sophie who?

John
Reply to  JohnE
4 years ago

Trouble reading there grandpa?

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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