Swimming Canada – GOLD COAST, Australia – Canada will have three women in the 200-m backstroke final at the Commonwealth Games after Kylie Masse, Hilary Caldwell and Taylor Ruck advanced through heats Sunday.

Masse (Windsor, Ont./University of Toronto) was the top qualifier at 2:09.12, followed by Olympic bronze medallist Caldwell of the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Victoria (2:10.27). Taylor Ruck of HPC-Ontario advanced in seventh at 2:12.62. It’s the fifth women’s final at these Games in which Canada has qualified the maximum three athletes.

Canada just missed putting three women in the 200-m individual medley final. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson (Ottawa/HPC-Vancouver) advanced in second at 2:12.24, while Sarah Darcel (Grande Cache, Alta./HPC-Victoria) sists fifth at 2:12.95. Kayla Sanchez of HPC-Ontario fell just short of the final in ninth at 2:14.07, coming off her 100-m freestyle heat just a few minutes earlier.

Five Canadians advanced to finals in the Para-swimming events. On the men’s side it was Philippe Vachon of Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Zach Zona of Waterford, Ont./HPC-Quebec in the SM8 200-m individual medley. Vachon earned third seed with a heat swim of 2:28.34, while Zona sits fifth after a personal best 2:40.81. Katarina Roxon of Kippens, N.L., led Canadian women in the S9 100-m freestyle, earning fifth seed with a 1:07.85, followed by Calgary’s Morgan Bird in seventh (1:09.76) and Abi Tripp of Kingston, Ont., in eighth (1:10.47).

They will join Yuri Kisil (men’s 100-m freestyle), Rebecca Smith and Penny Oleksiak (women’s 50-m butterfly) and the men’s 4×200-m freestyle relay in Sunday night’s finals

Canada advanced three women to semifinals in the top five of the 100-m freestyle. Ruck followed up her 200 back by earning the No. 2 seed in 100 free at 54.79. Olympic champion Oleksiak (Toronto Swim Club) sits fourth at 54.88, followed by Sanchez in fifth at 54.97.

Also advancing to semifinals:

Eli Wall (Ottawa/University of Toronto) advanced as the 12th seed in 50-m breaststroke at 28.29, taking a tenth of a second off his best time

Josiah Binnema (HPC-Vancouver) advanced in third at 53.49, while Mack Darragh (Oakville, Ont.) sits seventh at 53.81.

Kierra Smith (Kelowna, B.C.) was the fastest Canadian at 1:07.91, good for fourth seed, followed by Faith Knelson (Ladysmith, B.C./HPC-Victoria) in fifth at 1:08.50, and Rachel Nicol (Lethbridge, Alta./University of Calgary) seventh at 1:08.87.

Finals get underway at 7:30 p.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET) and will be streamed live on the DAZN platform, which also features on-demand content. CBC, in partnership with DAZN, will be featuring action from the pool during its weekend Road to the Olympic Games program.

 

Nathan White
Senior manager, Communications, Swimming Canada
Gestionnaire supérieur des communications, Natation Canada
AUS # (03/25-04/24): +61 (0) 431 469 380
t. +1 613-260-1348 x2002 | m. +1 613-866-7946 | nwhite@swimming.ca
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