Penny Oleksiak set a Canadian record on the way to a silver medal in the women’s 50 butterfly as the Barcelona leg of the Mare Nostrum tour wrapped up Wednesday.
The 17-year-old from Toronto was one of three Canadian medalists Wednesday, joining her High Performance Centre – Ontario teammate Taylor Ruck on the podium, as well as Markus Thormeyer of Delta, B.C.
Her time of 25.76 lowered the previous national mark of 25.92 set last year by Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que. Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alta., also set a personal best, finishing fifth in 26.35, while Savard came seventh in 26.69.
Thormeyer and Ruck each won their second medal in as many days. Thormeyer, who trains at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver, took bronze in the men’s 100 backstroke in 55.44, to go with his silver in the 200 Tuesday. Rob Hill of North Vancouver’s CHENA Swim Club was fifth in 56.22. Ruck, meanwhile, earned bronze in the women’s 200 back in a personal best time of 2:09.10. Ottawa native Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of the HPC-Vancouver was eighth in 2:17.38.
Mare Nostrum is a three-leg series of two-day meets that attracts top swimmers from all around the world. The high-profile international event serves as a tune-up for next month’s FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Montana Champagne of Ottawa’s GO Kingfish finished just out of the medals, taking fourth in the men’s 400 individual medley in a time of 4:28.71. Champagne and Hill are competing as part of Canada’s National Team Development Program. Seltenreich-Hodgson also turned in a fourth-place finish with a time of 2:13.53 in the 200 IM
Edmonton’s Richard Funk of the HPC-Ontario made two finals, coming fifth in the men’s 200 breaststroke in 2:14.69 and sixth in the 50 in 27.85. Teammate Sandrine Mainville of Boucherville, Que., was sixth in the women’s 100 freestyle in 54.04.
Press release courtesy of Swimming Canada.
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