Smith racks up swimming medals at world juniors

Swimming phenom Rebecca Smith has quite a medal collection to show from her time at the FINA World Junior Championships.

The Red Deer native won the silver medal Monday in the women’s 100-m butterfly in a personal best 58.07.

“It felt great, I’ve been waiting for the 100 fly all week. To come out with a best time on the last day, I’m really happy about that,” Smith told Swimming Canada.

Smith, who trains out of Ontario, also captured captured a bronze medal in the 50-m butterfly on Saturday and contributed to both women’s free relay gold medals won by Team Canada at the championships.

“Medalling in the 50 gave me a lot of confidence. Not only because my 100 is more of a better focus for me, but also that I have that front end speed at the beginning to pull ahead,” she said.

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Canada’s team of Smith, Taylor Ruck, Penny Oleksiak, and Kayla Sanchez set a world junior record to win the 4×100-m freestyle after finishing in 3 minutes 36.19 seconds.

“This team is so strong as a group and we’re all so close, so we’re all swimming fast and building on each other’s success and doing well,” Smith said. “We’re doing so well right now and we’re all still learning so we can all still improve.”

In the 50-metre butterfly, Smith won bronze with a personal best time of 26.22.

“My focus is more on the 100 fly, so to have this front end speed on the 50 looks good for my 100.”

Smith won her first medal at the world juniors on Wednesday as a member of Canada’s women’s 4×200-metre freestyle relay team.

Friday, Smith finished just off the podium in fourth in 100-m freestyle with a personal best of 54.63.

Canada finished with 15 medals at the championships, second only to the host United States.