St. Albert swimmer Paige Kremer anchored Canada’s 4x100 freestyle relay team to a medal-winning performance at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
Kremer, Cynthia Pammett of Peterborough, Ont., Victoria Chan of Richmond Hill, B.C., and Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of Ottawa joined forces to beat out the Japanese team for bronze with a time of 3:44.55 last Saturday in Hawaii.
The United States won gold at 3:41.04 and Australia took silver at 3:43.54.
“It was the highlight of my season,” said Kremer, 15. “It was really cool to know that only a few people in the meet get medals and I was one of them.”
The Olympian Swim Club member also finished seventh in the 50 and 100 metre long-course free finals as one of the youngest swimmers at the U18 competition.
“It was a fun experience. I was happy to make the A finals, just knowing that you made it that far, but I would’ve liked to have been a bit faster,” said Kremer, who also swam the last leg for the Canada’s B team in the 4x200 free relay.
The Grade 11 Paul Kane High School student qualified for the international meet at the Canadian Summer Nationals in July in Edmonton. She placed eighth in the 100m free and 13th in the 50m free.
Kremer previously competed for Canada for three consecutive years at the North American Challenge Cup, featuring teams from Mexico, California, Washington and Oregon.
“Junior Pan Pacs is one of the top junior teams for Canada to make so it shows that I’m on the right track,” she said. “It was one of my goals this year, so it means a lot to know that I actually did it. Making teams like that always makes swimming more fun and worthwhile.”
In the 50m final Kremer was clocked at 26.36, slightly off her personal best of 26.34. The top finisher was Alexandra Purcell of Australia at 25.15.
“It was a good race. I was happy with it, just knowing that I swam my best.”
Her time in the 100m free was 57.10. The winner was Simone Manuel of the United States at 54.80.
“It was better than my 200,” Kremer said of her 2:08.65 showing in the 200m preliminaries. “My 200 wasn’t very good. I didn’t make finals.”
The sprint free distances are her specialties.
“The head development coach for Canada said that my stroke reliability and holding my strokes longer is more consistent this year.”
At the Canadian Age Group Championships in July in Calgary, Kremer won silver in the open 50m, as well as the 100m free in her age division, plus the open 200 free and 200 medley relays.
In the springtime Kremer attended the Olympic trials in Montreal and gave it her best shot in the 50m, 100m and 200m free, 100m fly and the 100m and 200m back. She also combined with Olympian teammates Emily Flowers of St. Albert, Arynn DeLeeuw and Jennifer Morgan to win bronze in the 4x200 free relay.
“It was really exciting at trials,” Kremer said. “You got to see everyone in the A finals and all their excitement and joy for making the Olympics.”
Kremer is swimming in the right direction towards qualifying for the Canada Summer Games and junior worlds next year.
Last season she broke 31 individual club records – 11 provincial and two Canadian age-group marks – plus 14 relay club records, including six provincial and three national standards.
Kremer’s medal haul of five gold, three silver and two bronze at the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops was overshadowed by her national age group short-course record of 25.52 in the 50m free.
The secret for Kremer’s success in the pool is simple.
“I have fun,” she said. “It’s hard work but it’s worth it.”
