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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Scarborough Swim Club’s Noah Safa broke one of the oldest provincial records on the books for 12-year-old boys at the Ontario Swimming Championships in Toronto on Thursday.
Racing in the timed final of the 12-year-old boys’ 200 IM, Safa put up a time of 2:19.79 to win the provincial title by more than five seconds and erase the Ontario Age Record that had been on the books for 30 years.
Safa’s time broke the longstanding mark for 12-year-old boys of 2:21.90, set by Mississauga Aquatic Club’s Chuck Sayao back in 1995.
Safa’s previous best time stood at 2:22.58, set just last month at the Age Group International meet in Etobicoke in early June.
Split Comparison
| Safa, June 2025 | Safa, July 2025 |
| 29.67 | 28.19 |
| 1:06.02 (36.35) | 1:03.75 (35.56) |
| 1:50.13 (44.11) | 1:45.62 (41.87) |
| 2:22.58 (32.45) | 2:19.79 (34.17) |
Safa is now just over two seconds shy of the boys’ 11-12 National Age Group Record of 2:17.64, set by Jerome Sun in 1997.
In addition to Sayao, Safa notably overtakes Canadian Olympic finalist Brian Johns (2:21.81) in the all-time Canadian rankings for 11-12 boys in the 200 IM.
Sayao, who went on to represent Canada at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 World Championships, owns the Canadian 11-12 NAG in the 400 free (4:19.04), and also still has ownership of the Ontario record in the 200 free (2:05.83).
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Watching this meet.Its about halfway through the schedule.So far I have an informal count of 63 DQ,s.I,ve never seen so many DQ,s even in lowliest age group meets.Clearly there are some officials out of control.I assume the referee is in agreement or just remiss in not replacing the offending officials.These swimmers have trained all year, this is their championship.Too bad some pinhead officials have decided the meet is all about them and not the swimmers..
I noticed quite a few DQs at LC WOSA regionals as well a few weeks ago.
If it’s a legitimate dq then the official should be calling it out. The referee should be asking themselves why is it other officials are or are not calling them out. Can’t count the number of meets I have been at over the years where breastroke kick violations and multiple dolphin kicks on breakouts have not been called. That having been said I have also seen legitimate crossover turns dqd because the official didn’t know what a crossover turn was.
16 more in the afternoon..thats 76 with 2 days to go…..clown show.
23 more today…shameful
rough add up….102…at a provincial championship.
The stroke DQ’s are okay ( I guess ) but they are DQ’ing for code of conduct that have never been enforced before. Spitting water, stomping the blocks, things like that should be getting a warning for now. If they wanted to come down hard, start in the spring OAG (March version of provincial champs), not the season championships for many of these swimmers.
Our club was warned about DQing for stomping the block a while ago
It’s the senior Swim Ontario officials. The local organizing officials just report to the referee what they see, and the senior official who traditionally have given any benefit of doubt to the swimmers seem to be holding a harder line.
They also DQ’d many relays and only last night realised that the sensors on the blocks are broken… starting to feel really bad for the kids/coaches