Savard golden in record-setting 100 fly
GLASGOW, Scotland – Canada captured swimming gold for the second straight night at the Commonwealth Games as Katerine Savard won the women’s 100-m butterfly.
Savard, who moved to Montreal’s CAMO club earlier this year, made up a quarter of a second on the final 50 to set a Commonwealth Games record of 57.40. She out-touched silver medallist Siobhan O’Connor of England – who led by 0.21 at the turn – by 0.05 for the gold.
The 21-year-old was overcome by tears of joy after her victory.
“It was really emotional. I’ve had a pretty hard year because I moved, I changed my coach and everything,” she said. I’m really happy. It’s been emotional the last few days so I’m really happy about that. I knew that it would be really close so I gave it everything I can.”
She said Ryan Cochrane’s gold medal in the 400-m freestyle Thursday inspired her to follow suit.
“Just to see him win the gold medal last night was really nice to see and I was really excited for tonight because I knew it would be my turn,” Savard said. “He’s really a good model for all the young swimmers on the team.”
“Great finish,” said Swimming Canada High Performance Director John Atkinson. “She’s been a really consistent performer over the last 18 months and I think 57.4 in the final of Commonwealth Games to win gold is a great effort. Her and her coach Claude St-Jean should be congratulated on putting together a great series of swims to get on the podium and touch that wall first.”
Fellow Pont-Rouge, Que., native Audrey Lacroix was also in the final, finishing seventh at 58.78. Lacroix, 30, is the defending silver medallist in the 200-m butterfly, which is set for Monday.
“Audrey Lacroix put together a really good series of swims, which bodes well for her rest of the competition before her 200 fly,” Atkinson added.
Canada came close to another medal as Calgary Para-swimmer Morgan Bird came fourth in the women’s S8 100-m freestyle in a time of 1:10.07.
“It’s been such an honour to compete for Canada as one of the three Para-athletes that were chosen to come. I just want to do Canada proud,” Bird said. “The crowd is amazing. You don’t come to a meet and see a crowd like that very often so I tried my best to take advantage of it.”
Tera Van Beilen of the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Vancouver finished fifth in the women’s 50-m breaststroke. The 21-year-old from Oakville, Ont., swam the final in time of 31.22. That was the second-fastest 50 of her career, but just off the 30.74 she posted in Thursday’s semifinal.
“I felt better in warmup today than I did yesterday but the race was definitely better swum yesterday, which is unfortunate because if I would have gone that time I would have medalled today,” Van Beilen said. “Yesterday was a best time so you can’t really complain going over a half second faster in a 50. So I think it’s good for me to have that kind of confidence going into the rest of the races this week and I’m excited for my next races ahead.”
Van Beilen will be right back in the pool Saturday morning for the 200-m breaststroke heats, along with 2011 FINA World Championships medallist Martha McCabe of the High Performance Centre – Ontario.
In other finals action, Van Beilen’s HPC-Vancouver teammate Luke Reilly finished seventh in the men’s 400-m individual medley at 4:19.72, while Russell Wood of Calgary was eighth in the men’s 100-m backstroke at 54.56. The men’s 4x100-m freestyle relay finished fifth. Yuri Kisil, Coleman Allen, Wood and Evan White combined for a time of 3:19.68. Atkinson was pleased to see the group – which has an average age of 19 – improve on its heat time by nearly a second.
“They’re a young team who have got great promise for the future and did a great job,” Atkinson said.
In semifinal action Friday, Edmonton’s Richard Funk turned in a lifetime best performance of 1:00.51 in the men’s 100-m breaststroke, advancing to Saturday’s final in fifth position. “Richard Funk making it through to the final of the 100 breaststroke in obviously a world-class field of male breaststroke swimming here in Glasgow was a great job to get through,” Atkinson said.
Two women advanced in the 100-m backstroke semifinals: Sinead Russell in third at 59.91 and Brooklynn Snodgrass of Calgary sixth at 1:00.26. Hilary Caldwell of the High Performance Centre – Victoria just missed qualifying for the final in ninth at 1:00.77.
“Both put in really strong performances to progress through to the final of the 100 backstroke tomorrow night,” Atkinson said. “Two Canadians in that event is really good.”
Victoria Poon from Montreal’s PPO club advanced through the women’s 50-m freestyle semifinal in seventh position with a time of 25.15. The 30-year-old veteran was one of three Canadians in the event. Michelle Williams of the High Performance Centre – Ontario just missed the final, finishing ninth in 25.45, her second personal best of the day. Poon’s PPO teammate Sandrine Mainville was 13th at 25.76.
