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Remember the name Sarah Darcel.
She could be the 鈥淣ext One鈥� out of the Saanich Commonwealth Place pool, following in the wake of Olympic medallists Ryan Cochrane, Hilary Caldwell and Richard Weinberger.
Seventeen-year-old Darcel was sixth Saturday night, with a personal best time of 2:08.59, in the women鈥檚 200-metre individual medley at the 2016 world short-course swimming championships in Windsor, Ont.
It was the Claremont Secondary Grade 12 student鈥檚 first senior international meet.
鈥淚 was anxious all day and my morning swim was pretty good, so I was kind of just going into it like: 鈥榃hatever happens, happens,鈥� 鈥� Darcel said in a statement.
鈥淗aving the semifinal in the 100 [IM on Thursday], I kind of knew what to expect, but it鈥檚 still an amazing experience and completely different.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing being here on home soil. My first big senior team international meet happens to be in sa国际传媒, which is pretty amazing.
鈥淓verything is pretty familiar and it鈥檚 cool to have so many fans in the stands cheering: 鈥楪o Darcel.鈥� 鈥�
Darcel is joined in Windsor for the world short-course championships by fellow Victoria High Performance Centre swimmers Caldwell and Jeremy Bagshaw. Their coach at Saanich Commonwealth Place, Ryan Mallette, is the Canadian team head coach at the Windsor worlds.
Caldwell, bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, placed fourth in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke earlier in the week at the world short-course championships.
The short-course worlds are held in a 25-metre pool rather than the 50-metre Olympic pool distance and are considered a minor event compared with the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships scheduled next summer over 50 metres in Budapest, Hungary.
The 2016 short-course worlds are taking place in a temporary pool placed on the rink floor of the 6,700-seat WFCU Centre, normally home to the Ontario Hockey League鈥檚 Windsor Spitfires. Attendance has been good, following in the wake of sa国际传媒鈥檚 breakout six-medal swimming performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
sa国际传媒 won its fifth medal of the world short-course championships, and first gold, on Saturday through the women鈥檚 4x200 freestyle relay team of Penny Oleksiak, Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck and Kennedy Goss.
Two-time Olympic medallist Cochrane of Victoria is in Windsor as a goodwill ambassador for Canadian swimming, but is not competing as he mulls over his competitive future in the sport.
