Another day of prelims in Toronto, another Pan American Games record goes down. As was the case with the Bahamas’ stealthy sprinter Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace. The SwimMAC Elite pro threw down a personal best 50m freestyle time of 24.31 to not only wind up with the number one seed in the event, but to also crush the newest Games record, just only minutes old.
Brazil’s Etienne Medeiros clocked a 24.75 to earn herself the new meet mark out of heat 2, which surpassed that held by Lara Jackson of 25.09 from 2011. But Medeiros’ celebration was short-lived as “AVW” knocked it down by four tenths straight away in the very next heat.
In her monster time, Vanderpool-Wallace also knocked out her own Bahamian national record (24.34 previous PB) she registered at last year’s Commonwealth Games. AVW boosted herself to the 4th-fastest female in the event in the world so far this year, only behind Australia’s Campbell sisters and the Swedish warrior Sarah Sjostrom.
2014-2015 LCM Women 50 Free
CAMPBELL
24.03
| 2 | Bronte CAMPBELL | AUS | 24.12 | 08/09 |
| 3 | Sarah SJOSTROM | SWE | 24.20 | 07/03 |
| 4 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 24.23 | 08/08 |
| 5 | Arianna VANDERPOOL-WALLACE | BAH | 24.31 | 07/17 |
Vanderpool-Wallace earned bronze in the women’s 100m freestyle earlier in the meet, while she scratched the final for the 100m butterfly.