Annie Xu Dominates, Olympians Wigginton, Jansen & Hess Tune-Up At Ontario Summer Champs

2024 Summer Ontario Swimming Championships

  • July 4-7, 2024
  • Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
  • LCM (50 meters)
  • Meet Central
  • Results

Markham Aquatic Club standout Annie Xu had an incredible performance and a trio of Paris Olympians got in some tune-up races at the Summer Ontario Swimming Championships in Toronto.

The provincial championship meet saw the 11-year-old Xu, officially listed in results as “Huini Xu,” won seven events in the girls’ 13 & under age group, producing the fastest time in Canadian history for an 11-year-old in six races.

Xu already held the distinction of being the fastest 11-year-old in Canada in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 free, and improved her marks in all those races, and she overtook Summer McIntosh for the top time in the 200 IM.

Xu’s Performances

  • 100 free – 59.44 overtook her previous standard of 59.64 from May
  • 200 free – 2:07.62 overtook her previous standard of 2:08.49 from March
  • 400 free – 4:25.61 overtook her previous standard of 4:26.52 from May
  • 800 free – 8:59.32 overtook her previous standard of 9:12.17 from May
  • 1500 free – 17:15.49 overtook her previous standard of 17:22.98 from May
  • 200 IM – 2:25.10 overtook McIntosh’s previous standard of 2:25.52 from July 2018

Xu now ranks 2nd in the girls’ 11-12 age group all-time in the 800 free and 1500 free, trailing McIntosh who holds both NAG records with respective times of 8:51.71 and 17:07.33.

It is important to note that Xu’s eligibility for setting official records is unknown—SwimSwam has reached out to Swimming Canada for clarification.

Xu also won the 400 IM in 5:07.74, shy of her PB of 5:03.88 set in April, and placed 3rd in the 200 fly in a best time of 2:31.39.

OLYMPIANS COMPETING

Three members of the 2024 Canadian Olympic team were in action at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC), all of whom train at that pool with the High Performance – Ontario squad.

Lorne Wigginton, who qualified for the Olympic team in the men’s 400 IM and 800 free relay, won the men’s 200 free in a time of 1:49.21, just over a second shy of the PB he set at the Olympic Trials in May (1:47.93).

Ella Jansen also raced the 200 free, claiming the women’s event in 1:58.58 to come within a half-second of the best time she set on the Mare Nostrum Tour in May 2023 (1:58.09). Jansen made the Canadian Olympic team in the women’s 400 IM, and will also be in consideration to swim the prelim 800 free relay in Paris.

Also racing was Apollo Hess, who was the runner-up in the men’s 100 breast at the Olympic Trials and was given a discretionary Olympic roster spot for the medley relay.

After setting a PB of 1:00.99 in the 100 breast at Trials, Hess clocked 1:02.30 in the prelims before scratching the final, while he clocked 2:17.38 in the 200 breast to place 2nd to Markham’s Brayden Taivassalo (2:16.83). Hess’ 200 breast PB sits at 2:14.92 set in 2021.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

  • Delia Lloyd – The 17-year-old Etobicoke product won four events for 16 & over girls, setting new best times in the 100 free (55.20) and 100 back (1:00.43) while also clocking 25.79 in the 50 free and 2:12.07 in the 200 back. In the 100 back, Lloyd knocked two one-hundredths off her previous best time, moving up to 6th all-time in the girls’ 15-17 age group.
  • Madison Kryger – Kryger won the 100 back (1:01.35) and 100 fly (1:03.25) in the girls’ 15-year-old age category and added a trio of silver medals in the 50, 100 and 200 free. In the 100 back, the Brock Niagara Aquatics product narrowly missed her lifetime best of 1:00.73 with a 1:00.77 prelim swim.
  • Shona Branton – Branton, who was 4th at the Olympic Trials in the women’s 100 breast, won that event in Toronto in a time of 1:07.89. The Western University swimmer set a PB of 1:06.59 in January.
  • Jordi Vilchez – The 18-year-old member of the Barrie Trojans won the boys’ 17 & over 400 free (3:57.74), 1500 free (15:40.73) and 200 IM (2:05.54), and added a runner-up finish in the 200 free behind Wigginton. In the 1500 free, Vilchez dropped nearly 25 seconds off his previous best (16:05.40) and now ranks 31st all-time in the boys’ 17-18 age group.
  • Eric Ginzburg – Ramac Aquatic Club’s Ginzburg had some of the top swims of the meet based on FINA points with wins in the boys’ 17 & over 50 free (23.22), 100 free (51.37) and 100 fly (53.23), having set a PB of 53.21 in the 100 fly heats to rank 16th all-time in Canada.

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Swim dude
4 days ago

see #6 for official rule

Dear Swimmer/Parent/Guardian, Welcome to the 2023-2024 swimming season!

The final steps of registering with your swim club includes the following mandatory steps:
1. Confirmation of primary contact and information and preferred language related to your family and swimmer(s) in the RTR
2. Signing the Acknowledgement and Assumption of Risks Form
3. Agreement to comply to the Swimming Canada Code of Conduct and abide by all other Swimming Canada Policies;
4. Agreement to be under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) and be subject to the terms in the Universal Code of Conduct to prevent and address maltreatment in sport (UCCMS) for the duration of Swimming… Read more »

justanopinion
5 days ago

How is the Xu situation even a question? It’s simple. Canadian citiizen (born or naturalized) = able to hold records at any level.
Not a Canadian citizen (resident only status or visitor visas) = disqualified from holding any records for a country (unless there’s a category like US Open Records).
It’s a pretty global standard. Is it really not a ‘thing’ in Canada?
Either she’s full citizen Canadian or she’s not (Canada literally just benefitted from this with Ilya Kharun who was disqualified from the American National Team because he was not an American citizen so he joined Canada because –> Canadian citizen).
2nd hypothetical example of this: Gretchen Walsh arrives on a visitors visa to… Read more »

Last edited 5 days ago by justanopinion
Swimfollower
6 days ago

I’m not clear from past posts if Annie is Canadian citizen and eligible to compete on teams. Canada Games coming up next summer will she be eligible for Ontario team or junior Canadian teams?

Observer
Reply to  Swimfollower
5 days ago

Not a citizen

Yeah, right!
6 days ago

Are you sure Delia Lloyd is an Etobicoke product? At least their official Instagram account didn’t notice any of her 4 golds

scy enthusiast
Reply to  Yeah, right!
6 days ago

She is

ScovaNotiaSwimmer
Reply to  Yeah, right!
6 days ago

She’s at the HPC now, right?

Sceptic
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
4 days ago

For last 2 years. It’s’ hard to call that an Etobicoke product, tbh

Sceptic
6 days ago

Ouch, that hurts, given how miserable was Wigginton’s loss to Jankovics in 400 IM :-(((

Multigrain cheerios
6 days ago

I feel like it should be noted that Annie’s 200free was less than 10 minutes after her 1500 – and she split a 26.5 50 free on a relay….

CanSwimFan
Reply to  Multigrain cheerios
6 days ago

Phenom! Mind-blowing times.

Observer
Reply to  CanSwimFan
6 days ago

Yes. Almost unbelievable.

ScovaNotiaSwimmer
Reply to  Observer
6 days ago

You think she’s older than she’s claiming to be? On PED at her age! You’re clearly trying to imply something here.

Observer
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
6 days ago

Am I?

Last edited 6 days ago by Observer
ScovaNotiaSwimmer
Reply to  Observer
6 days ago

It seemed to me like you were. My apologies if not.

Daddy Foster
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
6 days ago

What?

truestrongandfree
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
6 days ago

fellow club parent say
family moved to canada from china with like a visitor visa in dec 2023
girl was still swimming in chinese competitions in like september 2023
girl was in some insane intensive chinese swimming program that’s like a full time job
breaking a real canadians records by not canadian is bs
looks like a loop hole for foreigners into the canadian swimming system is about to blow up

Alan
Reply to  truestrongandfree
6 days ago

I really wish you are mentally as strong as what your user name refers.

Canada should be very happy to attract more high level swimmers to practice and compete in Canada. It will improve the competition level.

Also what is the incentive for people from other countries to compete in Canada for breaking its records? Big bonus payout? If not, who has the interest to take advantage of the loophole you mentioned?

If you are so sensitive to who can break those records, you’d better to take to swimming Canada to follow USA swimming to have two sets of records. One is the open record and one is American records.

truestrongandfree
Reply to  Alan
6 days ago

nowhere was my point about forigners training/competing in Canada
I said breaking CANADIAN or PROVINCIAL records
breaking records in the boundaries of the country of canada pretty obviously should be by a canadian citizen
it doesn’t mean making records by a swimmer IN canada
u can’t even compare swim training from state sponsored countrys to long range development training plans canada has
full on saturation of forgeiners at like the 14 & under who train like professionals adult swimmers & will eat up records and any chance of canadian swimwers from being able to make them
hit a nerve must be from the same club

dinosaur
Reply to  truestrongandfree
6 days ago

Keep that mess in Ontario pls!

Butterflybabe
Reply to  truestrongandfree
5 days ago

She is an absolute amazing swimmer but the eligibility question is raising some concerns if a non resident or citizen of Canada can take Canadian records – there must be rules and regulations about situations like this that clubs and provinces have to follow no exceptions. Will be interesting to find out if there is any truth to her eligibility to even compete on visitors visa. Who will take the fault for this one? Hopefully not the swimmer.

mailbox
Reply to  Alan
5 days ago

Are you saying the question of this swimmer’s eligibility status should be ignored because other foreign-born swimmer’s wouldn’t come here to set Canadian records for a lack of payout? Foreign swimmer’s should be recognized in Canadian record books for a potential offset benefit to Canadian swimmer’s? We shouldn’t care Canadian records are held by non-Canadians? My guess is Summer McIntosh has a right to be “sensitive”.

fanatic
Reply to  mailbox
5 days ago

If Annie doesn’t have citizenship, Summer McIntosh records should stand.

fanatic
Reply to  fanatic
5 days ago

this is posted on another swimswam article about this swimmer:

“she’s actually a chinese citizen. She moved to Canada last winter as her mother began her studies at Seneca College. I heard that in China she trained with the Henan provincial team.”

Last edited 5 days ago by fanatic
Sceptic
Reply to  mailbox
4 days ago

Don’t implicate Summer into those stupid talks

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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