William Brothers Win’s Bronze

Victoria’s William Brothers won bronze in the men’s 1,500-metre freestyle to open the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

Mack Horton led Australia to a 1-2 finish clocking 15 minutes and 10.07 seconds with Jordan Harrison of Australia second in 15:15.76 and Brothers third in 15:17.10, setting a personal best by four seconds.

Brother’s younger sibling Peter Brothers was sixth in 15:36.81.

“It was definitely a goal here to get on the podium,” said William Brothers, 17, who has trained alongside 2012 Olympic silver medallist Ryan Cochrane and added he was very inspired by his club mates performance in London. “The biggest improvements I made were in the first part of my race and the last part.”

Other Canadian finalists in men’s competition were Omar Arafa (Etobicoke), and Dimitar Ivanov (Coquitlam), fifth and eighth in the 100 backstroke; Aly Abdel-Khalik (Etobicoke), and Stefan Milosevic (New Westminster), sixth and eighth in the 200 freestyle; and Brayden Salmon of London, Ont., and Evan White of Oakville, Ont., sixth and eighth in the 200 butterfly.

Canadian finalists in women’s competition were: Noemie Thomas (Vancouver) and Breanne Siwicki (Winnipeg) fourth and sixth in the 200 butterfly; Victoria Chan (Richmond Hill), and Sydney Pickrem (Halifax) fifth and eighth in the 200 freestyle; and Kristina Steins (Port Hope), and Cynthia Pammett (Peterborough), seventh and eighth in the 100 backstroke.

Thomas set a personal best by 0.7 seconds and missed the podium by a half second.