Canada adds five medals, including two gold at Para swimming worlds

MANCHESTER, England – Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C., and Danielle Dorris of Moncton, N.B., led a five-medal Canadian performance Friday with their second gold at the 2023 Manchester World Para Swimming Championships.

Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., won silver while Nicolas-Guy Turbide of Quebec City and Shelby Newkirk of Saskatoon each added a bronze. The performances brought Canada’s medal count to 15 with eight gold, three silver and four bronze with two days of races remaining. Canada won 18 medals at last year’s worlds in Portugal.

Canada stands sixth in the medal standings at the 70-country event.

Dorris, successfully defended her world crown in the women’s 50-metre butterfly, clocking a championship record 33.98. She is also the reigning Paralympic Games champion from Tokyo where she set the 32.99 world record that still stands today.

‘’I really feel happy with that race,’’ said Dorris, 20. ‘’My plan was to go faster than at last year’s worlds. My ending went very well and I was able to speed up and make up for a long start plus my underwaters are always pretty good.’’

Routliffe, already with victories in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke this week, followed in a personal best 35.14 while Julia Gaffney of the U.S. was third in 36.86.

‘’We both threw down the best possible race we could tonight and I’m really pleased,’’ said Routliffe, 24. ‘’The last two months we’ve really put a lot of work into training and focused on a lot of specifics and that’s paid off with some best times.’’

Bennett expended every ounce of energy he possessed to win the S14 200 individual medley in 2:07.98. That smashed his Canadian record of 2:09.40 set in the preliminaries as he continued to close in on the 2:07.50 world record.

‘’My goal was to leave it all in the pool,’’ said Bennett, 19, also the winner in the 200 freestyle and second in the 100 breaststroke. ‘’I tried to get as close as possible to the world record. At these worlds now I’ve updated two silvers to two gold. This is probably the best I’ve ever been. Now were setting up the road to Paris.’’

Rhys Darby of Great Britain took the silver in 2:10.95 and Dmytro Vanzenko of Ukraine was third at 2:12.02.

Bennett was second after the opening butterfly length, then took the lead at the end of the backstroke, expanded it on the breaststroke before steamrolling to the finish on the freestyle.

‘’The breaststroke is always the key stroke for me. My coach always reenforces to keep it nice and strong in the first 50 and start to progress from there. That’s where everything culminates.’’

In the women’s S6 50 freestyle Anna Hontar of Ukraine broke the world record for the win in 32.55. Yuyan Jiang of China was second in 32.90 and Newkirk took the bronze in 34.04 for her second medal this week. She won gold in the 100 backstroke on Monday.

Paralympic and worlds backstroke medallist Turbide showed his mettle in the men’s 50 freestyle snaring a bronze in a Canadian and Americas record 23.88. Oleksii Virchenko of Ukraine was the winner in 23.47 and Islam Aslanov of Uzbekistan followed in 23.78.

‘’It isn’t about the medal for me,’’ said Turbide, forced to put his 100 backstroke aside due to back and neck injury. ‘’My only goal coming here was to surpass myself and clock a personal best. I did that beautifully tonight.’’

Katie Cosgriffe of Oakville, Ont., the only newcomer on the team, competed in her first ever world final and was an impressive fourth in 1:08.83, only the second time in her career she has been under 1:09. She missed the podium by only 0.70 seconds.

‘’The end of the race hurt so bad,’’ she said. ‘’I haven’t felt my best all this week so just to see I’m around my best time I’m pretty happy.’’

Abi Tripp of Kingston, Ont., concluded a successful worlds tying for fifth in the women’s S8 50 freestyle nearing her personal best with a 32.74. Tripp, a two-time Paralympian, was focused primarily on the 100 breaststroke in which she won a bronze on Wednesday.

Canada was seventh in the 4×100 mixed medley relay  with a Canadian record 4:42.32 with Cosgriffe, James Leroux of Repentigny, Que., Philippe Vachon of Blainville, Que., and Routliffe. Newkirk and Arianna Hunsicker of Surrey, B.C., were leadoff and anchor in the preliminaries.

Nikita Ens of Meadow Lake, Sask., Canada’s busiest team member with six individual events was eighth in the S3 50 freestyle.

‘’Too many great, gutsy swims tonight,’’ said Canada’s head coach Mike Thompson. ‘’I can’t pick a favorite. For me, the way the relay came together tonight, everyone was on top of best times or better. The stands were full of athletes that race tomorrow but wanted to show up to support the team.  My heart is full.’’

In the preliminaries, Alexander Elliot of Kitchener, Ont., was ninth in the men’s S10 100 butterfly and Angela Marina of Cambridge, Ont., was 12^th in the women’s S14 200 IM.

Viewers can catch all the Manchester 2023 Para Swimming World Championships action live as all heats and finals sessions will be livestreamed on the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, and the CBC Sports App for iOS and Android devices.

Radio-Canada Sports is also airing the finals every day from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET on its app and at radio-canada.ca/sports.