All those hours in the pool at Saanich Commonwealth Place paid off as Danielle Hanus from Island Swim Club won a redemptive silver medal at the 2019 Lima Pan American Games.
After a sharply disappointing seventh place finish the night before in the women鈥檚 200-metre butterfly, Hanus rebounded to capture silver in the 100-metre butterfly in a personal best 58.93 behind winner Kendyl Stewart of the U.S. (58.49).
鈥淚 kind of knew I wanted to redeem myself,鈥� said Hanus, who was sixth at the turn before rallying.
鈥淭he [previous] night was not my best performance. You win some and you lose some. Some days do not go your way. To come back and go a best time, I鈥檓 really happy with it.鈥�
It was the second medal at the Games for a swimmer from the High Performance Centre-Victoria and Island Swim Club, following Ladysmith native Faith Knelson鈥檚 bronze in the women鈥檚 100-metre breaststroke. Knelson, a graduate of Claremont Secondary this spring, is headed to the NCAA Pac-12 with the University of Arizona Wildcats. Hanus swims varsity for the University of Victoria Vikes and was named UVic female athlete of the year for 2018-19 across all sports for her three sa国际传媒 West golds and gold, two silvers and bronze at the U Sports national championships.
The 21-year-old approached her second-chance race in Lima with a sense of tactical purpose.
鈥淚 need to hold myself to a higher standard, but sometimes it is just the way it is and I knew I wanted to come back and do a better job in the 100 fly,鈥� said Hanus.
鈥淚 knew that if I could stay with pack on the first lap I would have a chance. My back end speed has always been the strongest part of my race.鈥�
Hanus鈥� rebound performance was noted by Canadian swim team leader Iain McDonald: 鈥淥ne of the things we always talk about with our athletes is resilience. To have the ability to come back when some things don鈥檛 quite go your way. Danielle went out there and put out a best time right away this morning. It was great to see.鈥�
Thursday was the first of three days of finals in Lima for the Elk Lake-based Canadian rowing team, with Jessica Loutit and Larissa Werbicki taking the silver medal in the women鈥檚 pair.
鈥淲e adjusted our race plan to go a bit faster off the start because we knew the Chileans had a fast start. We took the start a bit more aggressive and we found ourselves in second place coming through the 1,000 and we were pretty relaxed about that,鈥� said Werbicki.
Luc Brodeur of the UVic Rowing Club and Graham Peeters, racing as seniors for the first time, were sixth in the men鈥檚 double.
Victoria field hockey players James Kirkpatrick, Maddie Secco, Anna Mollenhauer and former UVic Vikes stars Kaitlyn Williams, Danielle Hennig, Keegan Pereira and Brenden Bissett are one win away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Victoria-based Canadian women鈥檚 team will meet world No. 3 Argentina in the gold-medal final today and the Canadian men play defending 2016 Rio Olympic champion Argentina on Saturday, with Olympic berths going to the winners of both gold-medal finals.
Kirkpatrick and sa国际传媒 survived a surprisingly strong semifinal challenge from Chile on Thursday as captain Scott Tupper scored the winner in a 3-2 thriller.
Island or Island-based athletes have been part of 11 medal wins in the 2019 Pan Am Games so far. guaranteed either gold or silver.
