Kayla Sanchez fired a warning shot to her fellow competitors in the Canadian sprint field, clocking in 24.81 seconds to win the 50 freestyle Friday on the last day of the Toronto High Performance Test Event.
Sanchez entered with a seed time of 25.55 but bested the field by four tenths in 24.81. It’s a personal-best, downing the 24.94 turned in at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. It’s also her second best time of the month, complementing a 53.37 she went in the 100 free at time trial earlier this month.
The 20-year-old, who recovered from a shoulder injury that kept her out of the 2020 International Swimming League season, is not among the five Canadian women who’ve been provisionally selected to the Tokyo Olympics team. But she’s a contender in several events to say nothing of being a vital relay cog.
Second in the event was Maggie MacNeil in 25.21. Rebecca Smith was third in 25.68 with Kylie Masse fifth (25.99). Penny Oleksiak did not swim the event, though she has had a strong week at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.
The High Performance Test Event, originally slated for earlier in May, is a dry run for June’s trials at the same venue. Unlike a smaller event earlier this month, this meet includes not just swimmers from the Toronto High Performance Centre like Sanchez as well as clubs in Ontario and Quebec, but swimmers who train at the HPC in British Columbia.
Sanchez’s was the biggest swim of the day. Second was another quick time from Brent Hayden, who again laid down his fastest time since returning from retirement at 22.08 in winning the 50 free. Second was Joshua Liendo in 22.29; as Hayden pointed out on social media after they combined to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in the 400 free relay Thursday, the 18-year-old was born after Hayden had qualified for his first Olympics. Yuri Kisil was third in 22.52.
The quartet of Hayden (48.47), Liendo (48.28), Kisil (48.03) and Markus Thormeyer (48.31) swam a 3:13.09, which is the quickest among the four wild card teams.
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Tessa Cieplucha won the women’s 400 individual medley in 4:40.04, just a second off her best of the season in an event where the University of Tennessee grad figures to contend at Trials. Katrina Bellio was second, the 16-year-old going 4:46.16. Taylor Ruck won the 200 backstroke in 2:10.24, against a field that didn’t include Tokyo qualifier Masse. Summer McIntosh had a rare swim that didn’t result in a best time in the 800 free. Still the 14-year-old won in 8:49.43. Sydney Pickrem was third in 8:57.52, which according to her Swimming Canada bio is her first recorded time in the event.
On the men’s side of the Toronto test event, 17-year-old Alex Axon trimmed five seconds off his seed time to win the 800 free in 8:05.76. He gave up the lead in the final 100 to Jeremy Bagshaw, 12 years his senior, only to rally and get to the wall first by .01 seconds. Jacob Gallant won the 400 IM in 4:26.16. Markus Thormeyer, already qualified in the 200 back, was well off his Canadian record best time but still won in 2:05.38.