Canada's best young swimmers at Canada Games

Aug 21, 2009

CHARLOTTETOWN – World championship team members Sinead Russell of Oakville, Ont., Bridget Coley of Hamilton  Anders McIntyre of Vernon, B.C., and Alexandra Gabor of Whitehorse YK,  headline the swimming competition set for the 2009 Canada Games. The swimming races run during the second week of the Games from August 24-29.

Competition on Monday August 24 gets underway at 2 p.m., with the 800 and 1,500 freestyles and the 4X200 relays. Then from Tuesday to Friday preliminaries are at 9:30 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. All pool action, which also includes races for Para swimmers, is at the CARI Aquatic Centre in Charlottetown. The 10 kilometre open water races are on Saturday August 29 at 8:30 a.m. on the Southwest River.

McIntyre was one of Canada’s busiest swimmers at the world championships in Rome competing in five events: the 50 and 200 butterfly, the 200 and 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke. Russell raced in the 50 and 100 backstroke and Gabor competed in the 200m freestyle and the Canadian record setting 4x200m freestyle relay.  Cole made her international debut in the open water competition racing the five kilometre event.

McIntyre, Russell and Gabor were part of the Canadian team that competed the following week at the British Grand Prix. That team also featured the Canada’s national B team which included Canada Games swimmers David Dimitrov of Calgary, Hassaan Abdel-Khalik of Mississauga, Ont., and Kendra Chernoff of Saskatoon.

Several others were on the Canadian junior and youth teams for the Challenge Cup two weeks ago in California among them: Jeremy Bagshaw, Craig Dagnall and Hilary Caldwell, all of Victoria, Jacqueline Keire of Etobicoke, Julie Calvert of Oakville, Ont., and Vanessa Charron of Quebec City.

While these swimmers are already seasoned on the international stage, the Canada Games will represent the first major meet for many others. For some it’ll be their first Games experience, the first time they compete out of their province and the first time they compete without their coach by their side.

“It’s a great learning opportunity for the swimmers,” said Ken Radford, Swimming Canada’s technical director. “, “Their ability to handle this kind of stress and still prepare and perform to the utmost of their capabilities makes the Canada Games a very good testing ground. They will receive the true multi-sport experience.”

Canadian world record holder Annamay Pierse competed at the 2001 Canada Games and she still has vivid memories from that experience which set the stage for what has been a brilliant international career so far. Her sister Hanna was also at the Games in 2005 and her other sister Grainne is making her Games debut this summer.

“It was so much fun,” said Annamay Pierse, a triple gold medallist in her Canada Games participation. “It was the first Games I competed at and we had a very strong Alberta team. It was such a good building block towards the national team. “
 
Winskill are represented at these upcoming Canada Games by Karyn Jewell who will be swimming the 1500m Freestyle, and the 10km openwater.