Penny Oleksiak set a personal best whilst winning women’s 100-metre butterfly at the Speedo Eastern Canadian Open on Saturday, rising to the challenge of swimming alongside hometown star Katerine Savard.
Oleksiak, 16, who is preparing for the first Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming Trials of her promising pool career, clocked 58.44 seconds, ahead of the host Club Aquatique de Montreal’s Katerine Savard in 58.79. Oleksiak’s Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Ontario training partner Audrey Lacroix (1:00.20) earning bronze.
“I definitely wasn’t really expecting a personal best, but Kat really pulled me though it,” said Oleksiak, whose previous long-course best in 100-m butterfly was 58.50-second silver-medal effort at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships last August. “She went out really fast and she brings it home really well, so getting to swim by her really helped me a lot.
“It’s basically one of the only times this year that I get to race against really fast Canadians such as Kat,” added Oleksiak. “I know that at Trials, Kat and Noemie Thomas are going to be going a lot faster than I was tonight, so I am excited to see what’s going to happen.”
Zack Chetrat, also of HPC-ONT, won men’s 100-m butterfly in 54.97, one-10th of a second ahead of CAMO’s Ivan Cocunubo (55.07) and RHAC Predators’ Kourosh Ahani (55.08).
Etobicoke Swimming Club teammates Olivia Anderson and Meryn McCann each won races by more than five seconds. Anderson, 16, clocked 4:18.13 in women’s 400-m freestyle gold. McCann, 17, took 200-m backstroke in 2:11.42.
Full results can be found here.
The above is a press release provided by Swimming Canada.