The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace continues her stellar season with the MAC-North Carolina team in the 2014-15 Arena Pro Swim Series and posted some of the fastest times in the world this season in the process.

At the latest meet in the series, staged in Charlotte, North Carolina, Vanderpool Wallace won the 50m freestyle (24.35s) and 50m butterfly (25.93) on Saturday and was edged into second in 54.31s by Natalie Coughlin, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, in the 100 freestyle on Sunday in 54.24s.

Her time in the butterfly is the fastest time in the world this year and as she blew away Coughlin in the 50 freestyle, she posted the third fastest time in the world.

Speaking with swimswam.com following the race, the reigning Bahamas Swimming Federation’s Swimmer of the Year said she was excited about her accomplishment.

“I came in wanting to get close to my best time and I was right off by a hundredth in the 50 free so that was really exciting and then 50 fly I kind of spun out the first five strokes or so, so I want to try to slow it down a little bit and then start to fly after that,” she said.

The two time Olympian is already looking forward to representing the country in several meets at the international level.

Vanderpool-Wallace is preparing to compete at the 17th Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada, July 10-26 and the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, July 24 to August 9.

Her goal, however, is to represent Team Bahamas at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. It will be her third appearance at the games.

“The Pan Am Games are going to be incredibly fast. I think there is going to be a ton of people there that are going to shock the world and maybe swim faster than people are going to go at World Champs so I’m not really worried about missing out on racing,” she said.

“If I retire after 2016 this will be my last World Champs so that’s kind of where my thought process comes in and I’d like to get a World Champs medal headed into the Olympics. That would be kind of a confidence builder going into the Olympics so we’ll see.”

Her triumph this weekend follows her success at the Mesa, Arizona meet at the Skyline Aquatic Centre in April. She took first place in both the 50m freestyle in 24.84s and the 100m freestyle in 54.18s, but had to settle for sixth place in the 100m butterfly in 1:00.41s.

The meet at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Centre was the fifth in the series which will wrap up at the George F Haines International Swim Centre in Santa Clara, California, June 18-21.