Saanich Commonwealth Place has a reputation as a fast pool with eight world records set in it, including by Aussie great Kieran Perkins in the 1994 Games and three by American legend Michael Phelps in the 2006 Pan-Pacific championships.
Numerous national standards have also been set and that pedigree continued with five national records tumbling over just the first two days of the Bell Canadian swim trials for the FINA world championships at Budapest in June and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July.
“This is definitely the plan,” said Joshua Liendo, after setting the Canadian record of 50:88 in the men’s 100-metre butterfly Wednesday evening.
“This is where I want to be at this point. I like the swagger. I’m doing things my way. I want to get a medal at the international level.”
The 19-year-old will get that chance this summer after booking his place for Budapest and Birmingham as the youthful men’s team continues to develop and emerge after the women’s squad accounted for all 12 medals, six at Rio and six at Tokyo, over the last two Olympics.
“It’s been building and we have been patient. We’re coming. We want it,” said Liendo, of the Canadian men.
The native of Markham, Ont., won three medals at the 2019 world junior championships and made two finals in his Olympic debut last summer in Olympics, including a fourth-place relay finish, again showed why he will bear watching on the road to Paris 2024.
Multiple Olympic-medallist Kylie Masse broke the Canadian record in winning the women’s 50-metre backstroke earlier in the evening as Masse followed up her win the night before in the 100-metre backstroke. Also winning Wednesday was Tokyo Olympic gold-medallist Maggie Mac Neil in the 100-metre butterfly.
Teenage prodigy Summer McIntosh, introduced to Canadians last summer as a 14-year-old in the Tokyo Olympics, and Finlay Knox both surpassed their own Canadian records late Tuesday to book their passage to Budapest and Birmingham. Knox was across in the men’s 200-metre IM in 1:57.50 seconds to go half a second below his previous national standard. McIntosh went 4:01.59 in the women’s 400-metre freestyle to cut nearly two seconds off her time in finishing fourth in the Olympic final at Tokyo.
Olympic-medallist Sydney Pickrem qualified by winning the 200-metre IM, as did Javier Acevedo in the men’s 100-metre backstroke. Veteran racer Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria won the men’s 400-metre IM but his time did not meet the qualifying standard for the worlds or Commonwealth Games.
The trials will also select the team for the World Para swimming championships in Madeira, Portugal, in June.
Tokyo Paralympian Nicholas Bennett of Parksville won two medals in the opening two days, one in Canadian record time.
A total of 552 swimmers from 131 clubs have converged on Saanich Commonwealth Place. There are between 25 to 30 spots open for the worlds team and 23 for the Commonwealth Games squad. Most of the qualifiers will do the double.
The trials began Tuesday and will run through Sunday. Qualifying races are in the mornings beginning at 9:30 a.m. and the finals in the evenings at 6 p.m. All sessions are being streamed live on CBC Sports and CBC Gem.
