Gold medals for Cochrane, Lacroix, McCabe
Gold medals for Cochrane, Lacroix, McCabe
ORLANDO - Olympians Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., and Martha McCabe of Toronto won gold on Friday to highlight a productive night for Canada at the U.S. Grand Prix swimming competition.
Canada, which has 25 swimmers at the meet, ended the evening with three gold, one silver and three bronze.
In the men’s 400-metre freestyle, Cochrane took the gold in three minutes and 51.62 seconds. Michael Klueh of the U.S., was second in 3:53.71 and Conor Dwyer of the U.S., third in 3:54.70. Eric Hedlin of Victoria was fifth and Alec Page of Victoria seventh.
“We are coming off a great training camp and that was reflected in the performance here,” said Cochrane, a two-time Olympic medallist. “I’m happy with how things are working out especially in a post-Olympic year.”
In the women’s 200-metre breaststroke, McCabe prevailed in two minutes and 29.58 seconds. Raminta Dvariskyte of Lithuania followed in 2:31.15 and Alia Atkinson of Jamaica was third in 2:31.91.
“Anytime you win it’s a good feeling,” said McCabe, the 2011 world championship bronze medallist. “The race was good enough. It wasn’t fast for this point in the season but I’m just getting back into long course racing and to come up on top is a good thing for me.”
Lacroix, a bronze medallist in the 100 fly Friday, clocked two minutes and 09.63 seconds finishing ahead of Becca Mann of the U.S., second at 2:10.83 and Kim Vandenberg of the U.S., third at 2:14.99. Lacroix also won the 200 fly at the opening stop on the Grand Prix last month in Austin, Texas.
“I was hoping for a bit faster time but overall it was good,” said Lacroix. “My split times were solid and that was because I improved my turns from the meet in Austin where I struggled a bit in that area. This was my last meet before the world trials and I really wanted to get some good results in.”
Alexa Komarnycky of Etobicoke, Ont., Barbara Jardin of Montreal and Samantha Cheverton of Pointe-Claire, Que., took positions second through fourth in the women’s 400-m freestyle clocking 4:11.49, 4:12.42 and 4:12.73 respectively. Mann took the gold in 4:10.66.
“My goal was to go faster than in Austin and I achieved that,” said Komarnycky, also a 2012 Olympian. “I think I’m finally learning how to kick off the wall properly. We did a lot of turn work in training camp and it has really helped me.”
In the women’s 100-m backstroke, Hilary Caldwell of Surrey, B.C., took the bronze in 1:02.19 less than a second from runner-up finisher Olivia Smoliga of the U.S. Missy Franklin of the U.S., was first.
Page of Victoria added a bronze in the 200-m butterfly in 2:00.93. Tyler Clary of the U.S., was first in 1:59.42 and Peng Wu of China second in 2:00.80.
Sandrine Mainville of Montreal was sixth in the women’s 50-m freestyle and Charles Francis of Cowansville, Que., eighth in the men’s 100-m backstroke.
Competition ends Saturday.
Full results: http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/Grand%20Prix/2013%20-%20Orlando/
