EDMONTON – There’s a new wave of young Canadian male swimmers, and they knocked loudly at the senior national team door Thursday at the Speedo Canadian Open
Antoine Sauve won the men’s 200-m freestyle in one of the races of the night, sending a signal after narrowly missing the Olympic team last year.
The 19-year-old from Montreal’s CAMO club touched first in 1:48.21. That set a personal best and bettered Olympian Finlay Knox’s meet record set last year. Right behind him was Ethan Ekk, who finished second in a personal best 1:48.51.
“I’ve been working on my turns and all the little details before (Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria June 7-12). I’m trying to put it out there to like, not scare the others, but send a message that I’m here,” Sauve said.
The three-day long course meet at Kinsmen Sports Centre in Edmonton features 331 swimmers representing 91 clubs from nine provinces. Heats begin at 9:30 a.m. each morning with finals at 5 p.m. Tickets are available at: https://www.ticketmaster.ca/swimming-canada-natation-canada-tickets/artist/2708444
The meet is being webcast live on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and Swimming Canada’s YouTube channel.
Sauve was the other side of Jeremy Bagshaw’s feel-good story of perseverance last year. After getting his first taste of the national team as a relay-only swimmer at last year’s World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Sauve finished 0.04 seconds behind Bagshaw at Trials to miss out on that final 4×200 freestyle relay spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“I always think back to my touch at the end of the 200 last year, I took a breath at the last two metres and it made me miss the team. So I try to always s put my head down at the last metres and I’m just working on the little things that can make me faster,” Sauve said. “I’ve been working harder than ever. I’m putting in a lot of work and it’s starting to pay off. It was a fun race and I always have fun swimming with these guys so it’s always nice to be here and race them.”
Ekk, who trains in Tallahassee, Fla., was also pleased with the race. The pair exchanged hand slaps at the wall and around the podium.
“I’m in a really good place for this season for a long course meet and I felt really good,” said the 18-year-old. “Tony is a great guy and a great racer. He just a little bit out-touched me but I’ll get him next time hopefully.”
Ekk earned two individual and three relay medals for Canada at last year’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Canberra, Australia. He has his sights set on the senior team this year.
Meanwhile Oliver Dawson, another young swimmer looking to burst through that door at Trials in June, won the men’s 50-m breaststroke in a personal best and meet record 27.98.
“I’ve been 28 consistently. Today was just the result of knocking on the door,” said the Grande Prairie Piranhas swimmer, who beat out Paris 2024 Olympian Apollo Hess of the High Performance Centre – Ontario.
The 17-year-old earned three medals at Junior Pan Pacs, and also made his senior team debut at the world short-course championships in Budapest in December.
Thursday saw some solid swims from veteran performers as well.
Blake Tierney of the High Performance Centre – Vancouver won the men’s 100-m backstroke in 54.79, his second meet record of the day, ahead of Ekk (55.28) and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Cole Pratt (55.55).
“Who doesn’t want to always be faster, but for right now we’re in pretty heavy training, so we’re happy with that,” said the 23-year-old Paris 2024 Olympian. “I’m getting used to different strategies to try and see what works.”
His HPC-Vancouver and Paris teammate Ingrid Wilm took the women’s 100-m back in 1:00.62, just ahead of three-time Olympian Taylor Ruck (1:01.20) and 16-year-old Madison Kryger of HPC-Ontario (1:01.41).
Ella Jansen of Burlington, Ont., also set a meet record, winning the 200-m butterfly in 2:10.85 after only about a week of long-course training post-NCAA championships with Tennessee. Her only faster long course time was a 2:10 flat from 2022.
“The 200 fly is something I actually haven’t done long course in about two years, so just kind of getting back into long course and Canadian racing has been really cool,” said the Paris 2024 Olympian. “It’s been interesting and kind of fun to just come into it and have no expectation so that was definitely a pleasant surprise.”
In other notable swims, two-time Olympian Mary-Sophie Harvey won the women’s 200-m freestyle in 1:56.46.
“I’m really pleased. We’ve been working a lot on my front-end speed because I know I have a good back end but my front end can be better to compete with some of the girls on the international stage,” Harvey said.
Paralympic medallist Reid Maxwell opened his hometown meet with two medals, winning the men’s multi-class 100-m freestyle in 1:00.83 and finishing behind only Paris 2024 flag bearer Nicholas Bennett in the 200-m individual medley.
“It’s a training meet in the middle of my training block so I’m not mad about it. My 100 free could have been faster but I have no complaints going into tomorrow,” said the 17-year-old.
High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson was pleased with what he saw from the swimmers on Day 1.
“The purpose of the Canadian Open when we brought it into the competition calendar last year was mid-cycle quality racing. It happened last year in Toronto and on the first night here in Edmonton we’ve seen multiple athletes in multiple events race hard and swim really well for this time of the season. That’s exactly what we wanted from this Canadian Open concept that’s going to be a fixture on the Swimming Canada calendar through the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games,” Atkinson said. “The men’s 200 free, women’s 200 free, backstroke events, 50 breast and 200 fly women e really saw the atheltes who were here race hard and put up some really good times for this time of the season. That’s a really positive thing about Day 1 and I’m sure it’s going to be exactly the same over the final two days.”
Full results: https://results.swimming.ca/2025_Speedo_Canadian_Swimming_Open/