The passing-of-the-torch metaphor is probably the most over-used in sports. That鈥檚 because the new superseding the old is inevitable on any team and in any organization.
It鈥檚 an ongoing story, and it was told once again Sunday in Gold Coast, Australia, at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Claremont Secondary-graduate and emerging pool star Sarah Darcel won silver in the women鈥檚 200-metre IM. Her veteran clubmate from Saanich Commonwealth Place, 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Hilary Caldwell, faded to fifth place in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke in what will likely be her final race.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have quite the performance I wanted at the worlds last year,鈥� said Caldwell.
鈥淚 was feeling mentally tapped out. [So] I really wanted to come down here and be in the Games environment. It鈥檚 a cool way to end.鈥�
Canadians Kylie Masse (2:05.98) of Windsor, Ont., and Taylor Ruck (2:06.42), a Canadian raised in Phoenix, won gold and silver in the 200-metre backstroke with Emily Seebohm of Australia (2:06.82) third and Caldwell fifth in 2:09.22. Masse also won gold in the 100-metre backstroke, while it was the Canadian women鈥檚 record-tying seventh medal of the Games for the 17-year-old sensation Ruck, who trains at the High Performance Centre-Ontario.
Darcel, now a freshman swimmer in the NCAA Pac-12 with the Cal-Berkeley Bears, was a saucer-eyed newcomer when she joined the Swimming sa国际传媒 High Performance Training Centre at Saanich Commonwealth Place, where Caldwell was the established women鈥檚 performer and the retired two-time Olympic-medallist Ryan Cochrane the men鈥檚 star. Now it is Darcel who is establishing herself as someone to watch on the road to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as she swept to the 200-IM podium in 2:11.14 behind winner Siobhan Marie O鈥機onnor (2:09.80) of England. Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of the High Performance Centre-Vancouver won bronze in 2:11.74.
Darcel pinpointed on which portion of the 200 IM she felt she won her silver medal: 鈥淭he breaststroke was the key for me. It was a great race.鈥�
The likes of Masse, Ruck and Darcel have people predicting big things for Canadian swimming, especially on the women鈥檚 side, for Tokyo 2020.
鈥淚t鈥檚 crazy to feel old at 27 but it鈥檚 nice to see how the young talent is coming up,鈥� said Caldwell.
鈥淚t reminds me of the Victoria group we had 6-7 years ago. I like this young team, and this [Commonwealths] is a good first-Games experience for several of them, on the way to the Tokyo Olympics.鈥�
The new wave includes Faith Knelson of Ladysmith, who trains in Saanich at the centre with Darcel, and who was fourth Monday in Gold Coast in the women鈥檚 100-metre breaststroke final.
Jade Hannah, yet another of the young group out of Saanich Commonwealth Place, advanced to the final of the women鈥檚 50-metre backstroke.
St. Michaels University School graduate Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria, studying at UVic to become a doctor after an NCAA Pac-12 medal-winning swim career at Cal-Berkeley, just missed the Commonwealth Games podium Sunday with a fourth-place finish on the Canadian men鈥檚 4x200 freestyle relay team. The medallists were Australia, England and Scotland.
Bagshaw swam the opening leg for sa国际传媒.
鈥淚 want to give my teammates as good a start as I can,鈥� he said, before the race.
鈥淚 want to swim best times and see how it goes towards Tokyo 2020. Multi-sport Games such as these are good preparation for the Olympics.鈥�
There are 283 Canadian athletes competing in Gold Coast, of which 52 are from the Island or who live and train full-time in Greater Victoria. The latter have three medals so far through Darcel鈥檚 silver in swimming and Joanna Brown鈥檚 bronze in triathlon and Jay Lamoureux鈥檚 bronze in cycling. Knelson, Bagshaw and the Victoria-based triathlon mixed relay team have placed fourth.
