August 16, 2011

Swimming Summer Universiade Roundup

Swimming: Close but no cigar for van Beilen

SHENZHEN, China (CIS) – Canada came 11 hundredths of a second away from claiming its first swimming medal of the Summer Universiade on Tuesday night at the Natatorium of Universiade Sports Center.

Seventh at the 150-metre turn, Tera van Beilen, native of Oakville, Ont., mounted a furious comeback to place fourth in the final of the women’s 200m breaststroke in a personal best time of 2:26.78. Her final 50 was the second fastest in the field of eight.

“I am usually strong in the final 50m but had no idea where I was when I made the turn,” said van Beilen, who had already set a PB in the morning preliminaries with a time of 2:28.20. “I heard the crowd get louder as a Chinese swimmer was in the race and I said ‘gotta go, gotta go’ now and the adrenaline pushed me to the finish. This result will give me even more confidence heading into the 50 and 100m races.”

Ye Sun (2:24.63) from China overtook Andrea Kropp (2:26.18) of the USA to win gold and please the home crowd, while Satomi Suzuki barely held off van Bellen for bronze in a time of 2:26.67.

Canada took part in two more finals on Tuesday evening.

Hanna Pierse of Edmonton placed seventh in the women’s 400m individual medley in a time of 4:48.32. She was sixth heading into the race after posting a 4:48:56 in the prelims.

In the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, Nicholas Sinclair from Victoria, Dominique Massie-Martel of Ottawa, Kier Maitland of Edmonton and Colin Miazga of Saskatoon could not improve on their qualification position and finished eighth in the final in 7:26.76. The USA captured gold.

“Today was a good day but we are still looking for a great day,” commented Team Canada and University of Calgary head coach Mike Blondal. “We had a great swim by Tera and real good swim by Hanna, and now just need to convert more ninth, tenth and 11th place swims into qualifying for finals.”

In other swimming action on Tuesday, Pierse nearly qualified for a second final but ended up 10th in the women’s 200 breast with a time of 2:30.67.

In the women’s 400 IM, Paige Schultz of Toronto finished 19th in 4:58.34.

In the women’s 200 free, Lindsay Delmar of Calgary placed 10th in 2:01.21, while Heather MacLean of Etobicoke, Ont., was 26th in 2:04.18.

In the men’s 50 back, Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont., touched the wall in 26.53 to take 18th place, 10 spots ahead of David Sharpe of Halifax, who clocked 27.21.

In the men’s 100 free, Dominique Massie-Martel of Ottawa was 12th in 50.61 and David Hibberd of Calgary was 19th in 50.92.

In the men’s 100 breast, Richard Funk of Edmonton touched in 11th position in 1:02.16, with Jason Block of Calgary following in 24th place in 1:03.07.

Swimming: Strong showing for Canadian relay

SHENZHEN, China (CIS) – Despite qualifying for only one final, the Canadian team had a number of good performances Monday on Day 2 of the swimming competition at the 26th Summer Universiade.

“I thought we had a couple of good swims,” said Team Canada and University of Calgary head coach Mike Blondal. “This is a very, very fast meet. It’s much deeper than in recent years. Maybe because the world championships were also in China just a few weeks ago. One thing is for sure, this has become a world class meet.”

After taking eighth place in the morning preliminaries, Dominique Massie-Martel of Ottawa, David Hibberd of Calgary, Colin Miazga of Saskatoon and Kyle Troskott of Lethbridge, Alta., improved to sixth in the final of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay following disqualifications by Japan and Russia. The Canucks touched the wall in 3:20.99.

The USA (3:15.84), Brazil (3:17.30) and France (3:18.78) won gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

“The guys swam really well,” said Blondal. “This morning, they each shaved off a second from their personal best, and tonight they again went a little faster as a group.”

In individual events, Sandrine Mainville of Boucherville, Que., barely missed a spot in the evening session in the women’s 100 free. She was ninth in 56.15 seconds, 16 hundredths of a second slower than the eighth-place finisher.

Seanna Mitchell of Manotick, Ont., was also in the race and finished 20th in 56.97.

“Sandrine came really close. She had a very strong race and again, in past years, such a swim would have been good enough for a top-eight finish,” Blondal said.

Hanna Pierse of Edmonton also came close to an appearance in the final as she placed 10th in the women’s 200 individual medley thanks to a time of 2:17.30. Paige Schultz of Toronto was 15th in 2:18.12.

Still on the women’s side, Cassie Morrice of Victoria (4:18.75) and Julianne Brown of North Vancouver (4:22.66) were 13th and 20th, respectively, in the 400 free.

In a very fast men’s 50 butterfly field, Mike Smerek of St. Catharines, Ont., placed 15th in 24.65, while Troskott finished four spots behind in 24.84.

In the men’s 100 backstroke, Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont., a finalist on 200 back on Sunday, was 23rd in 56.58. David Sharpe of Halifax finished in 27th position with a time of 57.27.

Finally, in the men’s 800 free, Michael Zoldos of Newmarket and David Dimitrov of Milton, Ont., were 18th and 23rd with respective times of 8:14.53 and 8:24.74.

The Universiade swimming competition resumes on Tuesday with finals in the men’s 100 breaststroke, men’s 100 free, women’s 200 breast, women’s 200 free, women’s 400 IM, men’s 50 back, as well as the men’s 4x200 freestyle relay.

Swimming: Canada short of podium on Day 1

SHENZHEN, China (CIS) – The swimming competition got under way on Sunday at the 26th Summer Universiade and although Canada took part in two finals, the country’s first medal will have to wait at least another day.

Canada’s top results on the first day of action at the pool came from Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont., who placed sixth in the men’s 200-metre backstroke, and the women’s 4x100 freestyle relay, which bettered that performance a few moments later with a fifth-place finish in the final race of the night session.

Swanston created a buzz in the morning preliminaries when he posted the second fastest time, a “post full-body swimsuit” personal best 1:59.46, only 42 hundredths of a second slower than Cody Chitwood of the USA. The Stanford University student once again went under the two-minute mark in the final, touching the wall 1:59.54, but saw his rivals pick up the pace significantly including a spectacular 1:56.01 effort by gold medallist Ryosuke Irie of Japan.

Rexford Tullius of the USA took silver in 1:58.66, while New Zealand’s Gareth Kean claimed bronze in 1:58.74. Chitwood fell all the way down to fourth place with a time of 1:59.48.

“I would have loved to reach the podium of course, considering I was second after the preliminaries, but I can’t be disappointed with a personal best and back-to-back races under two minutes,” said Swanston, a veteran of the 2009 Universiade in Serbia, where he also finished sixth in the 200 back – in 2:00.42 - and helped Canada to a bronze medal in the 4x200 freestyle relay. “My third turn was messy, that was my one major mistake in the final.”

In the last event of the evening, Canada was hoping to at least match its performance from the 2009 Games, a bronze medal. Lead swimmer Marie-Pier Ratelle of Trois-Rivières, Que., and anchor Seanna Mitchell of Manotick, Ont., who were both part of the third-place foursome two years ago, this time teamed up with Heather MacLean of Etobicoke, Ont., and Sandrine Mainville of Boucherville, Que.

Ranked fifth after the preliminaries, the Canadians fell behind early in the final, dropping to sixth at both the 100 and 200-metre marks, and could never make up ground on their way to a time of 3:44.35. In a thrilling finish, Australia captured gold in 3:40.03, followed closely by the USA (3:40.19) and host China (3:40.29).

“I thought all in all, we did pretty well today,” said Canadian head coach Mike Blondal, who was also at the helm in 2009. “Matthew had two solid races but made a costly mistake on his third turn in the final. As for the girls, we knew they’d have to shave a good two seconds from their morning time and they didn’t quite make it.”

“As a team, it will be hard to match our seven medals from 2009,” added Blondal, whose University of Calgary Dinos are reigning CIS women and men’s champions. “The competition here is very tough. But we’re optimistic. Our relays are pretty strong.”

Nine other Canadian swimmers were in action on Sunday. Eight of them saw their day end following the morning’s prelims, while another took part in a time final in the evening.

Of the group, Zack Chetrat of Oakville, Ont., came closest to earning a spot in the final. The University of Toronto student finished 10th in the men’s 200 butterfly thanks to a time of 1:59.00. His teammate Jonathan Gagné of Montreal settled for 35th place in 2:06.98.

In the men’s 200 breaststroke, Richard Funk of Edmonton was 11th in 2:15.07 and Jason Block of Calgary was 23rd in 2:18.62.

In the men’s 200 backstroke, Adam Best of Ottawa finished 17th in 2:01.97.

In the women’s 50 butterfly, Paige Schultz of Toronto placed 12th in 27.70, while Caroline Kuczynski of Montreal followed in 19th position in 28.21.

In the women’s 800 free, Zsofia Balazs of Toronto and Pamela Ruskys of Kingston, Ont., were 18th and 19th, respectively, with times of 8:59.70 and 9:00.73.

The swimming competition resumes on Monday with finals in the men’s 100 back, women’s 100 free, women’s 200 individual medley, women’s 400 free, men’s 50 fly, men’s 800 free, and men’s 4x100 free relay.

NOTES: Contrary to most international swimming competitions, there are no semifinals or B finals at the Shenzhen Games. Swimmers advance to finals directly from the preliminaries.

Source: CIS Communications