A total of 35 swimmers, including one indisputable global star, qualified for the 2013 FINA world aquatics championships after four days of the Canadian trials held at Saanich Commonwealth Place.
Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, two-time Olympic-medallist in the men鈥檚 1,500-metre freestyle, won the event Saturday night in the best time in the world this year 鈥� 14:59.73 鈥� to cap off the trials in his muggy and packed home pool.
Cochrane鈥檚 performance was expected. It was his emerging 18-year-old Island Swimming/Victoria Academy teammate Will Brothers 鈥攆inishing second in 15:02.48 to also qualify for Barcelona 鈥� who turned the building on its ear.
It was the fastest 1,500-metre time ever recorded by a Canadian not named Ryan Cochrane.
鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 sunk in yet,鈥� said Brothers, a Claremont Secondary grad and first-year UVic student.
鈥淲e have the best support and training atmosphere anywhere in sa国际传媒 right here in this pool.鈥�
Another Victoria Academy swimmer, Eric Hedlin, was third and also well under the world championship qualifying standard of 15:09, but rules permit only two per country per event.
鈥淭hese results are awesome. The guys in our club are pushing me every day,鈥� said Cochrane.
The Canadian team will be coached at the world championships by Randy Bennett, who landed five of his Victoria Academy performers on the squad to Barcelona 鈥� Cochrane, Brothers, Alec Page, Alexa Komarnycky and Hilary Caldwell. Also qualifying was Tommy Gossland of Nanaimo.
Bennett is honest about sa国际传媒鈥檚 medal prospects in Barcelona from July 19 to Aug. 4.
鈥淎t the end of the day, we have Ryan [Cochrane],鈥� said Bennett, who also coached the Canadian team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, where Cochrane won silver to follow up his breakthrough bronze from Beijing in 2008.
鈥淎nd we have Richard Weinberger in open water [the Victoria swimmer who won Olympic bronze last summer in the 10K at London].
鈥淲e want to build [on London]. But we have to be realistic. It鈥檚 not about the number of swimmers we鈥檝e qualified for the world championships but about top-end performances.聽We want to raise our standards systematically. After the 2014 Commonwealth Games [in Glasgow] and 2014 Pan Pacific championships [in Queensland], we鈥檒l have a good idea of where we stand for Rio 2016.鈥�
For Brothers, that standing suddenly looks pretty darn good.
