Coming into day five at the FINA World Aquatic Championships in Barcelona the Canadian team had broken three national records and earned five top eight finishes with one medal. On Thursday evening Martha McCabe, the 2011 World Championships 200 breaststroke bronze medalist participated in the semi-final of main event.
After winning the bronze went on to finish fifth at the London Olympics in a lifetime best of 2:23.16. After the games McCabe made a choice to move back home to Toronto, leaving Vancouver and legendary breaststroke coach Jozsef Nagy, continuing her swimming career under the direction of Ben Titley.
McCabe has had a challenging year. At the Canadian trials she finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke and second in the 200 breaststroke just under the FINA A standard of 2:27.88, posting a 2:27.35.
In the prelims McCabe recorded a season’s best 2:25.91 to qualify for the eighth position in the semi-final. She competed in the first semi-final finishing in fifth in a time of 2:24.68, qualifying for the final spot in the top eight, “I was just hoping to be in the final but at that point I’d done everything I possibly could have,” McCabe told Swimming Canada.
“I just kept going on preparing as if I made it through. It’s all about getting down into that warm-down pool just in case I did. That’s what I did and of course I kept an eye on the TV screen and when I saw that I was through I was happy and continued on in my warm-down.”
Although her time was not a lifetime best it was faster than the 2:24.81 she swam in 2011 to earn the bronze, “I think that was a really good swim for me at this point. It was just about hoping that I was in,” McCabe said.
“Seeing that I was in the final just makes it that much better. I get one more shot and I often can build on my swims and get better and better. That’s the plan going into tomorrow night.”
“I was just reminded by one of the coaches that I did win my medal in one of the outside lanes, so anything can happen,” McCabe said. “Some of these girls might have swam faster times than me tonight, but sometimes doing it a third time is a challenge. I think I’ve got some experience doing that and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to have a good swim tomorrow night so we’ll see where that puts me.”
The second and final swim of the evening for the Canadians was the women’s 4 x 200 freestyle relay. The team made up of Sam Cheverton, Barb Jardin, Brittany MacLean and Savannah King finished fifth in a time of 7:55.48, which was faster than their prelims time.
The Canadian record of 7:49.14 was set at the 2009 World Championships.
