MAUI, HAWAII – Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Smith prevailed in a silver-medal duel in women’s 200-metre freestyle on Thursday, contributing to Canada’s two-medal opening night at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

The Red Deer, Alta., native parlayed a fast start into the first of the two Canadian medals at Kihei Aquatic Center, coming in at one minute 58.90 seconds. Smith got out quickly with a 27.74-second opening 50, creating enough separation to outlast the United States’ Isabel Ivey (1:58.94, bronze) Bingjie Li of China won gold in 1:58.23. Mary-Sophie Harvey, who is based at the Intensive Training Program – Montreal, was fourth in 1:59.48.

“I was super-excited about it – I was in Lane 7 so I couldn’t see the other swimmers, but what really got me going was the whole team sitting on the bleachers cheering for me and Mary-Sophie swimming with me,” Smith, 16, said.

“It was a great swim … I just put my head down and went for it. Going into the race I just wanted to get a best time and break that two-minute mark, but I guess I just jumped right to 1:58 [range].”

Smith, who recently joined Cascade Swim Club in Calgary, added that she drew motivation from Canada’s six-medal effort at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“I’ve been on a team with a couple of them and it was exciting to see those women do well.

Olivia Anderson, 17, had a breakthrough via a bronze-earning 8:32.84 swim in 800-m freestyle. The Etobicoke, Ont., native maintained an excellent pace in order to get on the podium with Li (8:28.12, gold) and Joy Fielding (8:31.21, silver) of the U.S.

“It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to race some very fast junior girls, so it was a great situation and I was hoping for a great outcome,” Anderson said. “It’s so great for us to have two medallists on the first night because that build momentum for the rest of the week.

“It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to race some very fast junior girls, so it was a great situation and I was hoping for a great outcome,” Anderson said. “It’s so great for us to have two medallists on the first night because that build momentum for the rest of the week.

“Tonight was a big drop for me,” Anderson added. “It was the first time under the FINA ‘A’ cut. I feel like I’ve saying for the past six months, ‘I can go 33-9,’ [8:33.90] and I went faster than that. It was good for it to just finally do it, and go under 33. It’s a little bittersweet because I know if I had been that time in April [at the Canadian Olympic and Para-swimming Trials] I would have some Olympic rings right now. But I’m super-excited to have gone this time.”

The Junior Pan Pacs continue through Sunday.

Other Canadian finalists on Wednesday:

Women’s 100-m backstroke: Danielle Hanus, Newmarket Stingrays, fifth, 1:01.81;  Ingrid Wilm, Cascade Swim Club, sixth, 1:02.06.

Men’s 100-m backstroke: Tai Long Singh, Intensive Training Program – Montreal, fifth, 57.05; Matthew Mac, Oakville Aquatic Club, 57.17, sixth.

Women’s 200-m butterfly: Mabel Zavaros, Oakville, sixth, 2:14:00;  Sarah Darcel (2:14.12, seventh)

Men’s 200-m butterfly: Colin Gilbert, Kamloops Classic Swimming, sixth, 2:01.57.

Men’s 200-m freestyle: Ian MacKinnon, Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club, sixth, 1:51.96; Brian Palaschuk, Regina Optimist Dolphins, seventh, 1:52.22.

Men’s 1,500-m freestyle: Josh Zakala, CSI Pacific NextGen Program, seventh, 15:40.45.

Full results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/Jr%20PanPacs/2016/