Katerine Savard was the top performer at this weekend’s Canada Cup in Montreal. Savard broke the Canadian record in the 50 butterfly winning the event in a time of 26.20. Her time, which is the 13th fastest in the world this year, bettered Noemie Thomas‘s mark of 26.35 that was set at the World Championship Trials in April.
Savard also won the 100 butterfly in a time of 57.54, which ranks in the top four in the world, but is not better than the 57.40 she posted earlier this month at the Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet. Savard’s times this month are half a second faster than the 58.06 she recorded to win the 100 butterfly at the Canadian trials in April, it will be interesting to see if that improvement continues into Barcelona.
Martha McCabe was the only other woman to post a time that ranks in the world’s top 25. McCabe, who won a bronze at the 2011 world championships, won the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:26.04, which is the 21st fastest time in the world. That is a season’s best for McCabe, who finished second to Tera Van Beilen at the Canadian trials just under the 2:27.88 qualifying time, recording a time of 2:27.35.
The men’s side saw Club Wolverine take 10 of the 14 events. The top performer on the men’s side of the competition was Japanese swimmer Junya Koga won the 50 backstroke in a time of 24.88, 10th fastest in the world this year and the 100 backstroke in a time of 53.89, 15th fastest time in the world this year.
South African Dylan Bosch won four individual events taking away victories in the 100 and 200 butterfly as well as the 200 and 400 IM.
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Last week Vince Mikuska was named Swimming Canada’s National Para-swimming Performance Coach. Mikuska has a great deal of experience and success with both para-swimmers and able bodied athletes. He coached Bob Penner a former world record holder and 1996 and 2000 paralympian and has been on the coaching staff of international para-swimming teams.
Mikuska was also the age group coach of Olympic bronze medallist Brent Hayden and was most recently the Provincial Coach for British Columbia.
He will be working closely with Craig McCord who has been the National Coach of Swimming Canada’s Para-swimming team since 2004.
The Canada Para-swimming team finished 10th in the medal standings at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, finishing with a total of 16 medals (4 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze).