Over 550 swimmers from over 130 clubs across Canada were competing in Victoria this week for positions on a national team.
The six days of competition at Saanich Commonwealth Place went toward selecting Swimming Canada teams who will compete at the 19th FINA World Championships in June in Hungary, the Commonwealth Games a month later in England, as well as the Madeira 2022 World Para Swimming Championships slated for June in Portugal.
This week new personal bests were achieved and Canadian records were broken.
Nicholas Bennett, originally from Parksville who now trains in Quebec, broke four records during the event.
He set records in the men’s Para multi-class 200-m freestyle, men’s 100-metre butterfly Para multi-class final, multi-class 200-metre individual medley, and 100-metre breaststroke.
“I feel like my training has paid off at this point,” said Bennett in a Swimming Canada news release. “Swimming in my first national meet in over three years, it feels great to have this under my belt.”
Bennett sets fourth record at Bell Canadian Swimming Trialshttps://t.co/3MPq7ln2jp
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Bennett établit un quatrième record aux Essais canadiens de natation Bellhttps://t.co/8Y85WmgVoj pic.twitter.com/cUlaJOknjA— Swimming Canada / Natation Canada (@SwimmingCanada) April 10, 2022
A number of other Canadian records were beaten over the six-day event, including in the men’s 100-metre butterfly, women’s 50-metre backstroke, and the men’s 200-m I.M.
This is the first trials event in three years as last year’s were severely compromised by the pandemic with much of the Canadian team being pre-selected and in 2020 because of the postponement of the Tokyo games.
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