In the final individual event of the meet, Canada’s Taylor Ruck put an exclamation point on her week winning the women’s 200m free in a new championship record of 1:57.87. That erases the previous championship record of 1:58.16 set by Tamsin Cook earlier at this competition leading off Australia’s 4x200m relay. The championship record coming into the meet was 1:58.93 set by another Canadian, Brittany Maclean at the 2011 championships in Lima, Peru.
Ruck led from start to finish, holding off a late charge from Arina Openysheva of Russia who came home strong in 29.75 (fastest in the field), and finished 2nd in 1:58.28. Hannah Cox of the United States was 3rd in 1:59.28.
The junior world record still stands at 1:55.16, set by American Katie Ledecky at the US National Championships last summer in Irvine, California.
Ruck will have her final swim of the meet swimming the freestyle leg on Canada’s medley relay at the end of the session.
Huge congrats to Taylor & her coach Kevin Zacher!