Day one finals of the Canadian nationals kicked off today in Saskatoon, SK. displaying some great swimming from the great white north.
Finals kicked off with the fastest heat of the 800m freestyle where Eric Hedlin, who trains with Canadian distance start Ryan Cochrane at the Island Swim Club, took home a big win in 8:05.25. Following him was Kier Maitland who swam a time of 8:06.71 to pick up the silver medal.
The women’s 50m fly displayed one of Canada’s top swimmers over the last few years: flyer Noemie Thomas. Thomas came into the meet as the top seed and the fastest Canadian swimmer in this event after posting a 26.33 at Mare Nostrum. The future Golden Bear swam a time of 26.23 tonight to better that time and move her up in the world rankings from 15th to 13th.
In the men’s 50m fly 18-year-old Cameron Kidd took absolute control of the race, touching in at 24.24 to win the gold medal over Rohan Jacobs who managed to get his hands on the wall for silver in 24.54. Matthew Dans who swims with the University of Toronto during the school year rounded out the top three with a 24.62 finish.
After posting the fastest time in the morning prelims Danica Ludlow dropped a 2:01.43 to take down Barbara Jardin for the win in the 200m freestyle. Jardin finished behind her in 2:01.74. Third was Jessica Plant over a full second behind Ludlow in 2:02.69.
Jeremy Bagshaw dropped under the 1:50 mark in the 200m freestyle twice today as he posted a 1:49.28 in prelims and rocketed to a 1:48.72 in finals. Taking home the silver medal over a second behind Bagshaw was Stefan Milosevic who finished the race in 1:49.73 to beat out Etobicoke Swim Club’s Aly Abdel-Khalik who picked up the bronze in 1:50.13. Alec Page who recently was removed from the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs roster finished fourth in 1:50.78.
The women’s 100m backstroke final was won by Oakville Aquatic Club’s Dominique Bouchard. Bouchard swam a 1:01.65 to take home the win and beat 17-year-old Kennedy Goss in the process. Bouchard’s time was just off the 1:01.51 that she swam at Canadian trials back in April which currently ranks her 49th in the world in the event.
Adam Best and Newmarket’s Jeffrey Swanston both turned together at the 50m mark in the 100m backstroke tonight, but ultimately it was Best who got has hand on the wall first to take home the national title. Best’s time of 56.35 just narrowly beat out Swanston’s of 56.48. Matthew Myers of the Toronto Swim Club finished third just behind the two leaders in 56.77.
Ashley McGregor took home a national title in the 200m breaststroke tonight. Her time of 2:27.18 was just off the mark she swam at Canadian trials in April; there she was a 2:27.11 which currently ranks her 37th in the world for that event.
Ashton Baumann won the men’s 200m breaststroke in a swift 2:16.43. The race was one of the closest we’ve seen tonight as James Guest was just behind Baumann in 2:16.98 and was also closely followed by Antoine Bujold in 2:17.24 and Jason Block in 2:17.54.
The women’s 1500m freestyle was won by 20-year-old Samantha Harding who dropped almost five-and-a-half seconds off of her seed time to win the event in 16:37.02. That time ranks her 38th in the world this year, which makes her the second fastest Canadian woman in this event behind Brittany MacLean by beating the time set by Tabitha Bauman at trials.
Live results can be found here.
26.23 is a pretty good time in the women’s 50 fly.
But it looks so slow after the crazy world record by Sarah Sjöström.
Why wouldn’t Cochrane compete at Nationals?
Commonwealth team members aren’t competing at Nationals – they’re in Spain for a staging camp right now.