LONDON – Canada’s Tess Routliffe captured bronze in the Women’s 200-metre Individual Medley (SM7) Friday evening, smashing her own National Record in the process
The 20-year old posted a time of 2:58.06, three seconds less than the mark she set back in August of 2018 at the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships.
Routliffe’s third-place finish secured her second medal of the London 2019 Para Swimming World Championships and pushed Canada’s medal count to nine in total.
“I knew it was a tight race going in,” said Routliffe. “I really was just going for a best time and seeing what that gave me.
“[I didn’t care] if it was a fourth, if it was an eighth, if it was a second, I was just really happy especially with that best time. That’s pretty big,” Routliffe said.
Two fellow Canadian national team members, Sabrina Duchesne, and Camille Berube competed against Routliffe in her fourth event and third final of the week.
Swimming against teammates is a situation in which Routliffe is no stranger.
In each of her five events this week (tied for the most of any Canadian athlete), the native of Caledon, Ont., is scheduled to compete against at least one teammate in the same race.
“It’s just more fun that way, ” Routliffe said. “I love being able to come to the pool with somebody, warm up with somebody, get ready with somebody, it just makes a huge difference.”
Routliffe now stretches her record-setting swim streak in London to three races, with a personal best in the 50M Butterfly and back-to-back National records in the 100M Breastroke and the 200M IM.
“That’s one of the things I love about her,” said Routliffe’s head coach, Mike Thompson. “She can turn it on when she has to turn it on.”
Next up for Routliffe is her fifth and final event of the 2019 Worlds, the Women’s 100M Freestyle (S7). An event in which she won gold back in the 2015 ParaPan Am Games in Toronto.