2025 CANADIAN SWIMMING TRIALS
- Saturday, June 7 – Thursday, June 12, 2025
- Victoria, British Columbia
- Victoria Saanich Commonwealth Place
- LCM (50 meters)
- World Championship Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Storylines To Watch
- Recaps
Ilya Kharun turned in a strong performance in the 200 fly in Victoria tonight, defending his national champion title in a season-best time of 1:53.41.
The swim came as somewhat of a surprise return to form in the 200 fly after spending the past season seemingly focusing more on the shorter butterfly distances.
Kharun picked up a bronze medal in both the 100 fly (50.45) and 200 fly (1:52.80) at the Paris Olympics, but his 200 quickly seemed to take the backseat as he moved into the NCAA season, with it looking more-and-more like he was focusing on the 50 fly and 100 fly. Kharun’s second season at Arizona State saw him train under head coach Herbie Behm, who is known to be more of a sprint coach, which likely contributed to his apparent focus on the shorter events.
While he continued to make waves in the SCY 50 and 100, posting new lifetime best performances in both events, his 200 fly began to fall behind a bit.
That pattern carried over into the early meets of the 2025 LCM season, with Kharun setting a new Canadian record in the 50 fly (23.09) and throwing down a lifetime best in the 100 fly (50.42) at the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale. At the same meet, he turned in a time of 2:00.51 in the 200 fly.
Over the next two competitions, Kharun gradually improved his performances in the 200 fly, getting down to a season-best time of 1:55.42 at the CA NOVA Speedo Grand Challenge, but still continued to shine in the sprint events.
Tonight’s performance marked a swift return to top form in the 200 distance, with Kharun throwing down a swim that was a full second faster than his performance at Trials last year (1:54.41).
Most notably, Kharun’s final time of 1:53.41 ranks him second in the world so far this year, sitting just behind Luca Urlando‘s 1:52.37 from April.
With such a dramatic turn around from the start of this season to now, it will be interesting to see what Kharun does at the World Championships in July.
Wow it’s almost like it was the start of a brand new Olympic quad after winning a medal as a teenager and he didn’t want to immediately get back into intense aerobic volume. People were genuinely saying Herbie ruined him after one bad race at a pro series. (For the record Im pretty sure herbie was always his primary coach)
don’t think they were saying ruined, more so like “oh they must have switched focus” which, who can blame someone for not wanting to swim the 200 fly.
I wish I could be as crappy at 200 fly as Ilya was earlier this season!
illy is a monster and a perfect fit at ASU with herbie’s training
18.3/41.0 freestyler with legitimate 4:10/14:30 potential (if he trained distance, fair enough he doesn’t)
18 split/43.4/1:37.9 flyer with 50.4/1:52.8 big pool PBs
that’s some serious stuff and dirty range
Let’s face it half the fun of swimswam is that some commenters live & die about each performance.. one performance deemed as ‘sub par’ & the swimmer is washed.
I half expect if McIntosh doesn’t set a wr in the 400 IM today that some of these commenters will say she is ‘washed’.
It’s true. If she doesn’t break the WR today, the question will be if Summer can ever get back to her incredible form from yesterday and the days before. 😉
“Sudden return” smh. Oh no, he had a bad in-season 200 fly in Ft. Lauderdale. Y’all do the same thing with Leon. He goes 4:10 in the 400 IM, everyone loses their minds and says Carson is going to beat him, and then Leon drops a 4:02. SMH.
Also, he was the shortcourse world champion in the 200 meter butterfly in December 2024.
It was a valid criticism after he was 3rd at NCAAs and well off his PB. But yes, it is looking like he and Herbie are figuring out how to do all 3 distances well.
Ikr. The media is so extra.
It was one bad race and then a very steady progression …..
Trust in Herbie