Jeremy Bagshaw of Island Swimming picked up his third gold at the 2016 Speedo Western Canadian Open. Bagshaw won the men’s 17 & over 400 freestyle in a time of 3:54.11, five seconds ahead of the field. Bagshaw picked up the victory in the 200 freestyle on Thursday and the 100 freestyle on Friday.
Rebecca Smith of Red Deer broke her second provincial age group record of the competition winning the women’s 15 & under 100 butterfly in a time of 1:01.00. The 15 year old broke the previous record of 1:01.02 set by Lili Margital in 2013. Smith’s time was also the fastest of the competition as Georgia Kidd took the 16 & over event in a time of 1:01.59.
Smith also won the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:15.63.
She was not the only Red Deer swimmer to set a new record on Saturday evening. Joshua Young set a new provincial age group mark in the men’s 15 year old 50 breaststroke posting a 29.39 to win the men’s 16 & under event. Young broke the record of 29.43 set by Ryder McGinnis in 2013.
Pan American Games gold medalist Hilary Caldwell won the women’s 16 & over 200 backstroke in a time of 2:10.22 just missing her season’s best of 2:10.05.
‘’We’re still in heavy training so I was pretty happy with that swim,’’ said Caldwell, based at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre-Victoria. ‘’I knew my speed wasn’t going to be quite there yet but the splitting was good, I was encouraged with my turns and hitting all the skills I need to have at trials.’’
‘’I had raced only once this year so I definitely wanted to attend another meet for sure and it’s just nice to get off the blocks one more time and make sure everything is going in the right direction.’’
Another Pan American Games medalist, Rachel Nicol, took the women’s 50 breaststroke in a time of 31.27.
Wyatt Yarish of UCSC and Adam Best of Keyano both picked up their second wins of the competition. Yarish took the men’s 17 & over 100 butterfly in a time of 54.85 while Best won the men’s 17 & over 200 backstroke in a time of 2:05.86.
Full results can be found here.
