Canada's Danielle Dorris swims to silver in women's butterfly S5-7 at Para Pan Pacific Championships

Two-time Paralympic champion Danielle Dorris earned Canada’s first medal to open the three-day Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, grabbing silver in the women’s 50-metre S5-7 final on Friday night in Walnut, Calif.

The Moncton, N.B. native led wire-to-wire and touched the wall first in 34.42 seconds after one length of the open-air pool at Mt. San Antonio College, less than a half-second off her 32.99 S7 world record.

But Katie Kubiak of the United States was awarded the gold medal after amassing 1060 points to Dorris’s 941. In Friday’s morning preliminaries, Kubiak established a new world record for S5 of 37.21, almost a full second faster than her previous record.

Her teammate, Mallory Weggemann collected 926 points in the final for bronze.

As a multi-class event that combines athletes from different physical, visual and intellectual impairments, winners of each race are decided by a mathematical points formula at Para Pan Pacs, not who touches the wall first.

Points are awarded based on how close a swimmer’s time is to the designated world record standard for their specific class. In other words, the closer the time is to the relevant record, the higher the points.

Dorris, who will turn 24 on Sept. 22, was born with underdeveloped arms, a condition known as bilateral radial dysplasia.

At her fourth World Para championships last year in Singapore, she captured an S7 medal of each colour, including gold in the 50 butterfly in championships record time (33.93). Dorris, who made her Paralympic Games debut 10 years ago, became only the third Canadian in history to win the same event at three consecutive worlds.

She also took silver in the 100 backstroke and bronze in the 50 freestyle.

Dorris successfully defended her Paralympic title in the 50 fly two years ago at her third Games.

In Friday’s men’s 50m S5-7 final, Toronto’s Sebastian Massabie recorded 837 points for bronze, behind Japan’s Eigo Tanaka (977) and Brazil’s Samuel de Oliveira (949).

Massabie, the S4 Olympic champion in the event in 2024, had the slowest time in the field of five on Friday at 36.07 seconds.

He broke six Canadian records and one world record at the 2024 Paralympic swimming trials.

The Surrey, B.C. resident has cerebral palsy which affects his left side.