Prince George Barracudas swimmer Haley Black finished off her first-ever international meet, the FINA short course world championships in Hangzhou, China, with another impressive performance.
The 22-year-old Black placed sixth in the women’s 100-metre butterfly final on Sunday, posting a time of 56.72 seconds, 1.71 seconds behind the winning pace of American swimmer Kelsi Dahlia.
Dahlia clocked 55.01 in the final, edging teammate Kendyl Stewart (56.22). Daiene Dias of Brazil (56.31) took bronze.
Black also raced the 100m butterfly in Sunday’s 4x100m medley relay, teaming up with Ingrid Wilm, Sophie Angus and Aela Janvier to finish seventh. Their time (3:58.04) was 12.46 seconds behind that of the winning team from the U.S. (3:45.58).
China (3:48.80) and Italy (3:51.38) took silver and bronze respectively.
Earlier in the week the same four Canadian women were part of the 4x50m medley relay team which finished 10th in 1:49.56.
Black, a three-time NCAA All-American while attending Auburn University in Alabama, now trains at the High Performance Centre in Vancouver.
She finished seventh in the 50m butterfly final and in the preliminary round shattered the Canadian record with a time of 25.43.
Black was ranked 29th in the event in the world heading into the meet, the first of her career against an international field.
“What is on paper does not matter,” said Black on swimming.ca. “You just have to own your race and know that you have a place in the pool like everyone else and that’s what counts.”
“Overall, I was pretty happy with the way I was able to perform, but I was not able to reach the time I wanted in the (50m) final. It was still a cool learning experience and I look forward to more experience in the international swimming pool.”
