West Vancouver teen Emily Overholt continued her summer siege on the aquatic world Monday, winning bronze in the 400-metre individual medley at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Overholt, 15, clocked a personal best and set a 15-17 age-group Canadian record with her time of four minutes 42.03 seconds in the final. She finished 2.01 seconds behind winner Ella Eastin of the United States with Eastin’s U.S. teammate Rebecca Mann coming second in 4:40.26.
“I’m definitely surprised but excited by this medal,” Overholt said in a Swimming Canada release. “I could see the Japanese girl (fourth-place finisher Emu Higuchi) beside me and I think my training just kicked in at the end to help me get third.”
Janusz Kaczmarek, Overholt’s head coach at the West Vancouver Otters Swim Club, was in Dubai with his young pupil.
“Emily is a very determined girl and very focused,” he said. “She wanted to get that medal. We started preparing for this six months ago and she worked very hard this summer. She came into these worlds very well prepared.”
In July Overholt won gold in the 200-m butterfly at the senior women’s Summer Nationals, following that up with three golds and a silver at the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., earlier this month.
Overholt just missed a second World Junior medal Monday when Canada finished fourth in the 4x200-m freestyle relay. On Tueday Overholt finished 10th in the preliminaries of the 200-m butterfly, failing to qualify for the final.
The Collingwood School Grade 11 student will finish up the Worlds with the 200-m individual medley on Thursday. The World Junior Swimming Championships, held every two years, are for girls age 14-17 and boys age 15-18. Overholt is young enough to attend the Championships again in 2015.
