CANADIAN TRIALS – DAY TWO PRELIMS
- Live streaming can be found here.
- Live results can be found here
- Prelims each day begin at 10 am EST/7 am PST
- Finals each day begin at 6 pm EST/3 pm PST
- Heat Sheet – Finals Day One
Women’s 100 freestyle – prelims
NYAC’s Michelle Williams posted a 54.51 this morning to qualify first for tonight’s final. Coming into the event Williams lifetime best was a 55.28 which she posted at the Eastern Canadian Championships. Her time was just a touch faster than Chantal Van Landeghem of Manta who recorded a time of 54.59.
Commonwealth Games finalists Sandrine Mainville of Camo and Alyson Ackman of Pointe-Claire were the next two fastest qualifiers. Mainville finished in a time of 55.06 followed by Ackman who hit the wall in a time of 55.13.
14 year old Penny Oleksiak posted the fifth fastest time of the morning, which may have been the most impressive. Oleksiak of the Toronto Swim Club finished in a time of 55.28 breaking the national age group record time. It is also extremely impressive because coming into the event her lifetime best was a 56.75 which she posted in February.
She was followed by Victoria Poon (55.37) and Hannah Riordan (55.45) of the Blue Machine, Katrine Savard (55.65) of Camo, Alexia Zennik (55.76) of Pointe-Claire and Taylor Ruck (55.80)
Men’s 100 freestyle – prelims
Cascade’s Yuri Kisil was the top qualifier in the men’s 100 freestyle recording a time of 49.23. Kisil was just under his lifetime best of 49.26 which he posted at the Pan Pacific Championships last year. American-based Geoff Cheah was the next fastest swimmer in the morning hitting the wall in a time of 49.48.
50 butterfly champion Santo Condorelli qualified with the third fastest time of the morning finishing in a time of 49.62.
He was followed by Dominique Massie-Martel (49.95) of Laval, Simona Bilis (50.09) of Lithuania, Spaniard Bruno Ortiz (50.19), Javier Acevedo (50.20) of Ajax, Karl Krug (50.21), Luke Peddie (50.28) of the UBC Dolphins and Evan Van Moerkerke (50.34) of Guelph.
Women’s 100 breaststroke – prelims
American Breeja Larson was the fastest qualifier by a large margin posted a time of 1:07.76. Larsen’s time was not far off her season’s best of 1:07.33 which currently ranks seventh in the world.
Kierra Smith of the Liquid Lightening Swim Club was the next fastest qualifier posting a time of 1:09.02. She was followed closely by Rachel Nicol of the Lethbridge Amateur Swim Club who finished in a time of 1:09.04.
Nicol was followed by Fiona Doyle (1:09.08) of Ireland, Martha McCabe (1:09.27) of the Toronto Swim Club, Tera Van Beilen (1:09.35) of the UBC Dolphins, Bronwyn Pasloski (1:09.73) of Cascade, Tianna Rissling (1:10.19) of the University of Calgary, Erin Stamp (1:10.59) of the UBC Dolphins and Alexandra Naisby (1:10.75) of Sherbrooke.
Men’s 100 breaststroke – prelims
Richard Funk of the Keyano Swim Club was the top qualifier of the morning posting a time of 1:00.76. American Brad Craig was second in a time of 1:02.16. He was followed by Jason Block of the University of Calgary Swim Club.
200 breaststroke champion James Dergousoff of the Chena Swim Club qualified fourth in a time of 1:02.29.
He was followed by American Mark Conroy (1:02.36), Lyam Dias (1:02.94), Antoine Bujold (1:02.96) and James Guest (1:02.99) all of Pointe-Claire. American Sam Tierney had the next fastest qualifying time of 1:03.07 followed by Jonathan Naisby of Sherbrooke who posted a 1:03.11.
Women’s 400 IM – prelims
The young American-trained Sydney Pickrem cruised her way to a 4:45.48 for the top seed out of prelims of the women’s 400 IM. Her swim was about a second short of her lifetime best, but her perch atop the rankings is precarious at best with a majority of the contenders in this race doing just enough to cruise through to finals (and with still a comfortable margin to spare).
Emily Overholt is the 2nd qualifier in 4:47.66, followed by Erica Seltenreich-Hodgson (4:50.81). Both swimmers have been well under 4:40 and will expect to do so again tonight, which is a barrier that Pickrem has not yet come close to yet.
One of the big revelations at this meet is 16-year old Tessa Cieplucha, who swam a lifetime best of 4:51.47 to qualify 4th – following up on her breakthrough win in the 1500 on Wednesday. She’s followed by a pair of 15-year olds Mary-Sophie Harvey (4:53.85) and Danika Huizinga (4:54.68).
Men’s 400 IM – prelims
Austrian Jakub Maly won’t be eligible to charge through to the A-final of the men’s 400 IM, but his country was still celebrating his top prelims time of 4:20.18 as it dipped under the qualifying standard for this summer’s World Championships.
That was another top seed for an American-based athlete, as they dominated the session.
As Maly falls off, the center lane in finals will go to UBCD’s Luke Reilly, who swam a 4:21.37 in the morning. Reilly came in to the meet as the top qualifier, and besides the 5 seconds he’ll need to drop to get down to his best time, he’ll have to go 4:13.73 in finals to ensure a spot on the World Championship Team with a Primary Selection Standard time.
He’ll be the best bet at hitting that time, though also capable is Island Swimming’s Alec Page. Page was 4th-best in prelims in 4:23.44, and will be looking for redemption in this, his best event, after a one-month doping suspension kept him out of the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pac Championships last year.
In between those two is Tristan Cote from Etobicoke (4:23.05), and joining them in the top 5 finalists will be rob Hill (4:26.56) and Montana Champagne (4:26.92). Christian McCurdy swam a 4:26.22, which is his best time, but is a non-Canadian and so will slide to the B-Final with Maly.
Women’s 50 Back – prelims
After a disappointing 13th-place finish in the women’s 100 backstroke on Wednesday, Toronto Swim Club’s Paige Miller was better with a 28.68 to take the top seed in the women’s 50 backstroke on Wednesday. While a national title is still on the line, this is not a selection event for this summer’s major championship meets.
Danielle Hanus (28.82) and Ingrid Wilm (29.04) hold the 2nd and 3rd seeds, both at just 16 years old.
Men’s 50 Back – prelims
Russell Wood, who sat out the CIS (Canadian college) season this year to focus on Worlds qualification, is reaping the rewards this week in Toronto. After winning the 100 back on Wednesday and booking a ticket to the World Championships, Wood was also the top qualifier in the 50 backstroke with a 25.34.
He’s followed by Jeffrey Swanston (26.04) and Adam Best (26.60). In between them in prelims were two internationals: Andreas Schiellerup (26.45) and David McLeod (26.54).
Off topic..
Is there someone here who is a “addicted down voter”. Many positive or neutral comments are usually downvoated.. it is aa behavior I can´t understand at all..
I agree! I wish they had never added the down votes! It seems to me, more up votes means a comment is popular. Of course people will disagree with comments, but do we really need to encourage people to be negative by giving them the chance to downvote? I don’t think so. That’s my opinion.
Jeff Grace, You have written Men’s/Women’s 100 back above in error. It should read 50 back. Thanks for your reporting!
Geof Cheah = Singaporean, not American I believe
Geoff Cheah is a Hong Kong international, based out of Ann Arbor.
Ah yes, my bad.
Again, their livestream is excellent. Kudos to them
I LOVE the announcer’s voice, and his ability to jump from English to French and back is VERY impressive, but sometimes it seems to make it difficult for him to pronounce some words in English. Since when is Regina pronounced ” re-jeye-na”? LOL! I’ m easily amused! 🙂
I wonder if the announcer is from Quebec City or from Montreal? I cannot distinguish regional Canadian accents anymore?
CAN Richard Funk?
He sure CAN!
I enjoyed watching Funk and Fink battle for breaststroke titles in the NCAA meet! Seeing those names next to each other always makes me smile.
I completely agree that more swimming federations should make their Trials available to viewers with this terrific quality! Wow, I sure wish the US would!
Yep, and I would even pay for a good quality swimming stream, at least there are options, rather than blocking those who are located outside of the country.
Me too! Imagine how great it would be if we could watch all the World Champ Trials on such high-quality streaming video! Heaven!
The streaming really is something for US to learn..
The downside is the Quali Criteria.. more than hard.. I would say it is unknows.. come on! A swimmer should know if he is in or out right after th e race..
I must say Bravo and Props to Swimming Canada for streaming its trials on Youtube with 720p quality! And available for free to all! Well done!
I wish all other swimming super power also follow suit.
One thing I don’t quite get is that why were there not many more Canadian olympics/worlds medalists. It is a rich country with great facilities and resources, its population is more than Australia+Sweden combined, and its closest neighbor is USA, the most powerful swimming country where it sends many of its top swimmers to train under world’s best coaches in NCAA.
I don’t think climate can be solely blamed, as other cold climate countries such as Sweden and Denmark have had very successful… Read more »
There seem to be a bit of a glimmer of hope in Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak. I hope they keep on improving.
I’m sure that the answer to your question in complex and multifactorial, and I certainly do not have all the answers, but I commend Canada for its investment in this facility and the high-performance center that is housed within it. Hopefully there will be more medalists from Canada soon, but swimming is incredibly competitive around the globe right now, so it may take time!
In Canada, my country, both girls ad boys are given skates as a birth present, often followed by a hockey stick at age two. I am only partially joking. Although we are bigger than Australia, be have no warm coastlines and 50m pools are only found in about 10 larger centres. Canada used to have a great club system, but that was pillaged in the 1990s by national training centres–a project that succeeded in many geographically smaller nations, but not so well here. The club concept seems to be growing a bit again–at least showing more bite.
I think we will remain a winter-sport nation for years to come, a place where our talents shine through. We won the 2010 Olympics and maintained a strong third behind Russia and Norway in Sochi. Winter sports can be done under the influence of alcohol and marijuana than the summer equivalents–not an unimportant point if you think of our hockey stars and Ross Rebagliati.
Thank you for the explanation!
And I would think skating/skiing under influence is dangerous lol!
Historically, Canada has done a pretty weak job of funding top-level swimmers. It may have gotten better in recent years, but not long ago there were Olympians who were actually amateurs in every sense of the word – working other jobs just to fund their swimming.