Rivard wins gold medal to open Berlin stop on Para swimming World Series circuit
The Canadian Para swimmers make a splash in Berlin and Boccia players looking to qualify for Paris.
The Canadian Para swimmers make a splash in Berlin and Boccia players looking to qualify for Paris.
BERLIN – Just two weeks after the Paralympic trials, Aurélie Rivard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. won the gold medal in the women’s 200-m freestyle at the sixth stop on the Para swimming World Series circuit.
Rivard, a 10-time Paralympic medallist tuning up for her fourth Games, clocked 2:09.31, less than a second off her S10 world record time set in 2018 for 914 points in the multi-class race.
Liesette Bruinsma of the Netherlands was second with 870 points and Aira Kinoshita of Japan third in 834 points.
In the multi-class events, the swimmers are ranked based on how close they are to the world mark in their respective disability categories.
‘’It’s probably my best performance in this event since I set the world record in Berlin six years ago,’’ Rivard said in an on deck post-race interview. ‘’It’s a good warm-up for my 400m freestyle in Paris.’’
Bronze medals were earned by Games-bound Para swimmers Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont. in the women’s 100-m breaststroke and Katie Cosgriffe of Oakville, Ont. in the women’s 50-m backstroke.
Routliffe clocked the second fastest time of her career in 1:31.20 after setting the S7 Canadian record at trials.
Cosgriffe set a personal best 32.39 to approach the 32.06 national mark set by Summer Mortimer in 2010.
Competition runs until Sunday.
Five Canadians to compete at boccia World Cup
Danik Allard of Bois-des-Filion, Que., Kristyn Collins of St. John’s, NL, Lance Cryderman of Sudbury, Ont., and Joelle Guérette and Marco Dispaltro, both of Montreal, are in Rio for a boccia World Cup event which starts Saturday.
Allard (men’s BC2 category), Collins (women’s BC2) and Cryderman (men’s BC1) are scheduled to compete in both the individual and team events.
Collins, Cryderman and Allard are awaiting word if they will receive a bipartite slot for the Paralympic Games in Paris. They are 12th, 10th, and 12th respectively in individual world ranks while 10th in team. Both Cryderman and Allard are vying for a second Paralympics participation.
The slots are allocated based on a multitude of factors decided by World Boccia and the International Paralympic Committee.
“The BC1 and BC2 Team are just coming off the World Cup in Montréal, which ended in them reaching the semifinals at a world event – a first for a Canadian team in the last decade. We should be going into the Sao Paulo World Cup with more confidence which will hopefully show in our results,” said Boccia Canada coach Ed Richardson.
Guérette competes in women’s BC3 and Dispaltro, a three-time Paralympian, in men’s BC4.
It is the second to last competition for the Canadian team before the Paralympic Games begin at the end of August.
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