Female sprinters make their mark as teams are named

Competitors battled for spots on the Canadian teams for the Pan Am Games in Toronto July 10-26 and the FINA World Championships July 24-August 9 in Kazan, Russia.

Winnipeg’s Van Landeghem and Toronto’s Williams both met the cut for the two competitions as they did on Thursday in the 100-m free which was won by Williams.

On Saturday, Van Landeghem clocked a meet record 24.98 seconds for the first sub 25 second swim by a Canadian woman on home soil. Williams followed in 25.00.

‘’These kinds of performances are really great for women’s sprinting in Canada,’’ said Van Landeghem. ‘’It augurs well for our freestyle relay as well. The time is very good for me at this point but all areas of my race will need to be better this summer.’’

As expected two-time Olympic medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria easily prevailed in the men’s 1500-m freestyle in 15:01.41. As was the case in his 400 freestyle victory he was under the world championship standard.

‘’Tonight was a bit like my 400, it’s not where I wanted to be at this point,’’ said Cochrane. “I got the job done and I always swim a lot better when summer comes around. With the Pan Ams here there’s going to be loads of excitement.’’

In the women’s 200-m individual medley, Sydney Pickrem posted the fourth-fastest time ever by Canadian winning in 2:11.90. She went under the world championships and Pan Am standards as she did in her 400 IM victory.

‘’It is going to be so exciting representing Canada this summer especially with the Pan Ams here,’’ said Pickrem, a Florida resident with Canadian parents. ‘’It was great to have so many members of my family here tonight.’’

In the women’s 200-m butterfly, two-time Olympian Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., made the Pan Am cut clocking 2:09.22. Noemie Thomas of Richmond, B.C., already qualified for the worlds and Pan Ams with her victory in the 100-m butterfly, was second in 2:11.19.

“The race felt really good,’’ said Lacroix, a 12-year national team member and two-time Olympian. “I’m going to work hard to have success at the Pan Am Games. I won my first Pan Am gold 12 years ago so it would be cool to do it again.’’

Alec Page of Victoria clocked a personal best 1:58.64 to win the men’s 200-m fly and add to his Pan Am assignment list, which includes the 200-m freestyle and 400-m individual medley.

‘’The 200 fly has always been a secondary event for me so it’s nice to see what I can do,’’ said Page. ‘’I just wanted to keep pace with the leaders in the first 50 and I felt if I kept on track I could something on the second length.’’

Luke Reilly of Vancouver added the 200 IM gold to his 400 IM victory earlier this week with a powerful final freestyle length.

In the women’s 800-m freestyle Tabitha Baumann of Edmonton added her name to the Pan Am team as did Atlanta-based Karl Krug and Alex Loginov of Toronto in the men’s 50-m freestyle.

This week’s competition also serves as one of the test events for the upcoming Toronto 2015 Pan American Games that run from July 10-26.

For more information on the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, visit www.toronto2015.org

The next round of TORONTO 2015 Pan Am tickets will go on sale April 16.

Live results are available at https://www.swimming.ca/liveresults/2015cantrials
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NOMINATED TO PAN AM GAMES TEAM

Women
Last Name First Name Club
Ackman Alyson PCSC
Baumann Tabitha EKSC
Bouchard Dominique OAK
Caldwell Hilary PSW
Lacroix Audrey BLUE
Maclean Brittany ESWIM
Mainville Sandrine CAMO
McCabe Martha TSC
Nicol Rachel LASC
Overholt Emily WVOSC
Pickrem Sydney ISC
Savard Katerine CAMO
Seltenreich­-Hodgson Erika GO
Smith Kierra LLSC
Thomas Noemie UNVAR
Van Beilen Tera UBCD
VanLandeghem Chantal MANTA
Williams Michelle NYAC

Men
Last Name First Name Club
Allen Coleman UBCD
Bagshaw Jeremy ISC
Chetrat Zack TSC
Cochrane Ryan ISC
Condorelli Santo UNATT
Dergousoff James CHENA
Funk Richard EKSC
Kisil Yuri CASC
Krug Karl UNATT
Loginov Alex TSC
Maitland Kier EKSC
Milosevic Stefan UBCD
Page Alec ISC
Reilly Luke UBC
Thormeyer Markus WDSC
Van Moerkerke Evan GMAC
White Evan OAK
Wood Russell UCSC

NOMINATED TO FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS TEAM

Women
Last Name First Name Club
Ackman Alyson PCSC
Bouchard Dominique OAK
Caldwell Hilary PSW
Goss Kennedy GGST
Lacroix Audrey BLUE
Mainville Sandrine CAMO
McCabe Martha TSC
Nicol Rachel LASC
Overholt Emily WVOSC
Pickrem Sydney ISC
Poon Victoria BLUE
Savard Katerine CAMO
Smith Kierra LLSC
Thomas Noemie UNVAR
VanLandeghem Chantal MANTA
Williams Michelle NYAC

Men
Last Name First Name Club
Cochrane Ryan ISC
Wood Russell UCSC
Bagshaw Jeremy ISC
Condorelli Santo UNATT
Funk Richard EKSC
Kisil Yuri CASC
Van Moerkerke Evan GMAC
Krug Karl UNATT