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Glacial Bears raise the bar at Canada Cup

A single medal might be considered a light haul for local swimming sensations Alexandra Gabor and Bronwyn Pasloski, who competed in the Canada Cup in…

A single medal might be considered a light haul for local swimming sensations Alexandra Gabor and Bronwyn Pasloski, who competed in the Canada Cup in Toronto over the weekend.

But when you examine the results, the two Glacier Bears Swim Club members’ accomplishments become evident.

“Both girls swam best times,” said Glacial Bears coach Marek Poplawski. “So I’m very happy about it.”

Although Gabor was the only one of the two to reach the podium, finishing third in the 200-metre freestyle, both swimmers set personal bests in every race and even set some new BC provincial records.

“I got best times in everything this weekend, so that was good,” said Pasloski, who raced in the 50-, 100- and 200-metre breaststroke as well as the 100-metre individual medley. “It was really tough competition, so it was hard to get medals this year.”

In many of her races, Pasloski was up against Julia Smit and Tara Kirk, both of whom competed at the Olympics.

“They pretty much dominated,” said Pasloski.

In fact, at the meet Smit set a new world record in the 400-metre individual medley.

“It was amazing,” said Pasloski. “I was getting changed and I could just hear the crowd — I had to go out and watch.”

Pasloski set a new BC provincial record, finishing the 100-metre breaststroke in 1:08.74, resulting in a sixth place finish. The nationally carded swimmer finished sixth in all her races except the 200-metre breaststroke, in which she took ninth.

En route to an eighth-place finish in the 50-metre freestyle, Gabor twice set new BC records.

“First she broke it in the morning, than she broke it in the finals,” said Poplawski.

“That was a fantastic time,” added Poplawski of Gabor’s bronze finish. “She just missed by a few tenths of a second the Canadian record even though she’s just 15.”

The two swimmers, who were named Swimmer of the Year at Friday night’s Sport Yukon Awards Night, will be travelling to Portland, Oregon, in the second weekend of December to compete in the Paul Bergen Junior International Invitational.

Pasloski wants to break more records in Portland.

“I’m going to try and get the Canadian age-group record in the 200 breaststroke because I just missed it,” she said.

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com