Going into the second day of competition at the new Toronto Pan Am Pool, only six swimmers had met the priority one selection criteria guaranteeing them a spot on the World Championships team.
Tonight, four more swimmers met the priority one selection criteria punching in their tickets to the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, Russia. Two swimmers made it in the 100 freestyle, and two made it in the 400m IM.
Michelle Williams and Chantal VanLandeghem went 1-2 in the 100 freestyle to both drop under the Swimming Canada ‘Top 16’ mark of 54.58. Williams led VanLandeghem at the wall 25.96 to 26.29. She held off a charging VanLandeghem to grab the win at the finish in 54.21. VanLandeghem was second in 54.31. Sandrine Mainville, who trains with the two at HPC Ontario (VanLandeghem trains there when she’s not at Georgia), came third to round out a 1-2-3 finish for the HPC group in the 100 free.
Williams is ranked sixth in the world with that time. VanLandeghem is tied for seventh.
2014-2015 LCM Women 100 Free
CAMPBELL
52.52
| 2 | Femke HEEMSKERK | NED | 52.69 | 04/04 |
| 2 | Cate CAMPBELL | AUS | 52.69 | 04/08 |
| 4 | Sarah SJOSTROM | SWE | 52.70 | 08/07 |
| 5 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 53.17 | 08/07 |
In the 400m IM both Sydney Pickrem and Emily Overholt were under the ‘Top 16’ mark securing spots on the World Champs roster. Overholt earned herself a spot on the Pan Am Games roster last night after winning the 200 free, but fell short of the priority one standard for Worlds. Tonight she was all over that, finishing second to Pickrem with a time of 4:40.59. Pickrem won the race in 4:39.26 dipping under 4:40 for the first time.
Pickrem cracked the top 10 with her time, and is currently ranked ninth in the world this year.
2014-2015 LCM Women 400 IM
HOSSZU
4.30.39
| 2 | Maya DIRADO | USA | 4.31.71 | 08/09 |
| 3 | Hannah MILEY | GBR | 4.32.15 | 04/14 |
| 4 | Emily OVERHOLT | CAN | 4.32.52 | 08/09 |
| 5 | Aimee WILLMOTT | GBR | 4.33.66 | 04/14 |
Santo Condorelli and Richard Funk were both just short of making the Worlds team. Condorelli won the 100 free in 48.83, and Funk won the 100 breast in 1:00.44. Condorelli was just five one-hundredths off qualifying, Funk was two.
CURRENT WORLD CHAMPS ROSTER THROUGH DAY TWO
- Dominique Bouchard
- Martha McCabe
- Jeremy Bagshaw
- Russell Wood
- Dominique Bouchard
- Hilary Caldwell
- Michelle Williams
- Chantal VanLandeghem
- Sydney Pickrem
- Emily Overholt
Since the Aussie trials live finals thread was not created, I’ll post here.
Grant Hackett is truly majestic. At 34 yo, after 6 years of retirement (which included many life challenges), and only 6 months of training under the belt and then smashed a 3:46
not qualified yet of course, but such a comeback over 400 m is unheard of.
If only that cheat Mellouli had been banned from swimming Beijing.
Hackett is not qualified with a 3:46? Is it because he is not the top two?
Not top two. Horton in a 3:42 and Mckeon in a 3:44
Cheat?
Because of that ritalin thing? That isn’t a normal “performance enhancing” drug. I don’t know if there is more to the story, but I think “cheat” is a bit strong.
Adderall that he took can be used as masking agent.
And if you believe Mellouli’s story, you will also have to believe every single dopers story, otherwise you’d be employing double standards
See also – Bill Sweetenham, British Swimming for the same M/O and how it went over there.
Two questions:
1. Has Bouchard made Worlds in 2 events? I think that must be a typo, which means only 9 athletes have made Top 16 times.
2. Is there any possibility Condorelli or Funk can be added to the World Team anyway, since they were so close, both won a Canadian title, and made FINA A times?
DanJohnRob: The only way is if John Atkinson picks them. He has full discretion.
If I were either of them, I’d be using the rest of the competition to focus on bringing him coffee and giving him back rubs.
The feeling I’m getting from Canadian fans here on Swimswam is that swimming fans there are NOT happy with the current selection process. I don’t think this Atkinson guy is going to be able to keep his job very long if he’s not able to keep the people who pay fees to Swim Canada happy; we’re not talking about Soviet Russia here! But I suspect it’s too late to change anything for this season, which stinks!
Santo Condorelli, Richard Funk, and Rachel Nicol all made the FINA ‘A’ standard. Under normal circumstances they’d be going to worlds, but they missed Canada’s selection standard.
It will be interesting to see which of them John Atkinson decides to take to worlds for relays, and if he does take them, whether or not he will decide to enter them in the individual events as well.