Michelle Williams and Chantal Van Landeghem went 1-2 in the 100 freestyle yesterday and both dipped under the Swimming Canada ‘top 16’ standard to claim spots on the World Championship roster.
At the touch Williams was a 54.21 with VanLandeghem finishing second on 54.31, just slightly behind her. Sandrine Mainville finished third just out of a World Championships birth with a time of 54.48.
All three swimmers were under the ‘top 16’ standard, and all three swimmers are part of the HPC Ontario group run by Ben Titley. Mainville and Williams have been training with Titley all year, while VanLandeghem just came back from Georgia to train with the group leading up until trials.
It’s the second time in Titley’s career that he’s had swimmers go 1-2-3 in an event. In the United Kingdom, Titley had swimmers go 1-2-3 in the 200 freestyle one year.
This means a lot of good not only for Titley’s group, but for the potential of a Canadian 4×100 free relay. Victoria Poon was fourth in 55.06 and has previously been on the national team, meaning that a relay setup is a great possibility.
Well give this Titley guy a raise, because he definitely knows what he’s doing! Congrat’s to the Canadian women, who will be competitive in the 4×100 this summer! Bravo! 🙂
P.S. As a swimming fan, I can’t help thinking all these Canadian swimmers seem like terrific PEOPLE when they are interviewed! They’re so unspoiled and hard-working! What parent wouldn’t want their child to end up like them?! I think SwimCanada needs to do more self-pomotion to increase participation.