2023 CANADIAN SWIMMING TRIALS
- March 28 – April 2, 2023
- Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
- TPASC
- Long Course Meters
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- Worlds Selection Procedure
- Day 1 Roster Update
Six swimmers qualified for the 2023 World Championships on day 2 of Canadian Swimming Trials, bringing the projected roster up to 14.
The first duo to add their names to the list was Maggie MacNeil and Katerine Savard in the women’s 100 butterfly. Olympic and world champion MacNeil pulled off the expected win in the event, notching a 56.54 season-best, while Savard swam a 57.81 to get within striking distance of her 2014 PB of 57.27. They both swam under the FINA A cut of 58.33 and can now be expected to race the event this summer.
Savard raced for Canada at the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2022 World Championships, making this her 5th time qualifying for the team. She has been racing for Canada for 10 years, making her one of the team’s longest-serving members.
Next up, Josh Liendo had a massive swim in the men’s 100 fly, shaving more than half a second off his national record in the event. Liendo soared under the 51.96 FINA A standard with a 50.36 to become the 5th-fastest man in history. He and silver medalist Ilya Kharun (51.45) both qualified for the race, becoming the 3rd and 4th men on the team.
In the women’s 1500 freestyle, only the gold medalist qualified as Emma Finlin pulled off a dominant swim to win the event by 25 seconds. Finlin swam a 16:20.61 to take 11 seconds off her former best time of 16:31.49. The FINA A cut in that event is a 16:29.57, which silver medalist Laila Oravsky was a bit shy of with her 16:45.11.
Just like in the women’s event, only one man qualified in the men’s distance event. Eric Brown posted a 7:56.96 to crack the Swimming Canada secondary standard of 7:57.84. According to Swimming Canada’s selection criteria, if no one hits the FINA A in the A final, the top swimmer under the secondary standard will qualify.
Kylie Masse, Ingrid Wilm, and Javier Acevedo all qualified for the 100 backstroke on day one and finished within the top two in the 50 backstroke on night two. While that event isn’t a selection event, their swims in the 50 likely secured them a second swim at Worlds.
PROJECTED CANADIAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ROSTER:
Women:
- Sydney Pickrem – 200 breast
- Kelsey Wog – 200 breast
- Ingrid Wilm – 100 back
- Kylie Masse – 100 back
- Summer McIntosh – 400 free
- Ella Jansen – 400 free
- Maggie MacNeil – 100 butterfly
- Katerine Savard – 100 butterfly
- Emma Finlin – 1500 freestyle
Men:
- Javier Acevedo – 100 back
- Brayden Taivassalo – 200 breaststroke
- Josh Liendo – 100 butterfly
- Ilya Kharun – 100 butterfly
- Eric Brown – 800 freestyle
I know Ilya is no longer American, but his 100 fly time would have him 2nd all time in the US rankings right behind Phelp’s 51.10
true! and this was already true considering he swam a 51.54 a few weeks ago
The timing of trials is brutal.NCAA swimmers have about a week to go from scy to lcm.Non NCAA swimmers are just nicely getting into long course.Why have trials now?No other country has.Is Swim Canada just a little bit smarter than the rest of the world?I believe World Juniors are in September.So a young swimmer could miss qualifying for a meet that happens in 6 months by say .2 of a second.Do you think they could make that time if trials were in June?Just duh…thats all.
Australia did a similar thing until two years ago and appear to have seen some good improvements from taking trials closer to the event. Maybe Canada will follow suit.
Britain toyed with it a few times but it massively backfired due to even our biggest names having to do a full taper thanks to ridiculous qualification times, so it really depends on the federation. If athletes are being asked to go best times to guarantee qualification, it isn’t going to work – If your big names can fairly safely almost swim through on light rest, there are clearly rewards to be reaped.
GBR is still, apparently, doing so given their selection meet is next week.
South African Trials are the week after.
I was talking about moving trials closer to the big summer event – Britain toyed with it about a decade ago and quickly switched back to April trials.
100%. We aren’t always putting our ‘best’ forward with trials so early. On the other hand, it’s nice for team members to gather for camps, not be stressed and enjoy the experience a little longer.
Katerine, Butterfly 😉
Her tracksuit game is 👍
Canada had two swimmers under the FINA A standard for 1500m W, and neither of them were Finlin. Bit disappointed we couldn’t secure a second quota here. Brayden instead of James in the men’s 200m breastroke is strange, especially since James was the only swimmer to hit the FINA A standard. I don’t know what led Swimming Canada to make this decision.
Those 1% selections should be made at the end of the meet and consider all results. Pan Ams are another consideration.
The irony is that James can’t be selected because BT didn’t swim fast enough. If James had been the exact same time but BT had swam faster in the final then they could have selected both lol