Olympic vet sees success upon return to Etobicoke.
Tristan Cote swims his way to the finish of the men's 200 meter freestyle Sunday morning at the Etobicoke Olympium during the Canada Cup hosted by the Etobicoke Swim Club. The event provides an opportunity for Canadian swimmers to compete on a world class level.
Photo/Steven Der-Garabedian
Etobicoke Swim Club members did rather well at the Canada Cup swim meet, which was held over the Nov. 25 to 27 weekend, which is not surprising, given that it was held at their home club - the Etobicoke Olympium.
The highlight was former club member Tobias Oriwol, 26, a 2008 Beijing Olympian, with five gold medals.
Although a Montreal native, he called the Etobicoke Olympium home for a good chunk of his teen years as a member of the Etobicoke Swim Club while attending Silverthorn Collegiate from Grade 10 to 12.
Technically, he's now attached to the national training centre out of the University of Toronto, and he now lives around that neighbourhood, but his folks still live in Etobicoke.
Coming back to his former stomping grounds has paid off though, as evidenced by this year's Canada Cup gold medal collection - in 200m backstroke, 200m and 400m individual medley and 200m and 1,500m freestyle - all of which indicate his efforts to return to the Olympics, next year in London, are right on track.
The other highlight had to be Etobicoke born and raised Brittany MacLean, 17, who is closing out her final year of high school at Silverthorn Collegiate, and who hopes to get to the Olympics for the first time next year.
She's coming off a summer in which she won gold at the junior world championships in both 200m and 400m freestyle events.
She won one individual gold medal in the 800m and finished second in three other events - 100m and 400m freestyle and 200 backstroke (finishing second in the 100m free and 200m back to another teenage phenom, 18-year-old Sinead Russell).
"It's great our young swimmers like Sinead and Brittany take this opportunity to race hard," said Swimming Canada's CEO and national coach Pierre Lafontaine, in a media release on the Swim Canada website. "That's what we want to see here this weekend. Our potential Olympians really focused on the task at hand."
Other highlights from Etobicoke:
* Amanda Reason, 18, a Silverthorn grad, finished second in 50m breaststroke;
* Hassaan Abdel-Khalik, 19, a Silverthorn Collegiate grad, finished second in 100m freestyle and two third-place finishes in 200m and 400m freestyle;
* Lauren Earp, 17, also at Silverthorn Collegiate, finished third in both the 100m and 200m freestyle events.
* and Bogdan Knezevic, 20, finished third in 200m individual medley.
The Etobicoke Club also dominated the relays.
The men won gold in both the 4x100 medley relay and 4x200m freestyle relay and second in the 4x100m relay. The lineup was the same (although not necessarily the same order): Wil Wright, 21, Gleb Suvorov, 19. Aly Abdel-Khalik, 17, and Bogdan Knezevic, 20.
The women won gold in both the 4x100m (Lauren Earp, Olivia Bellio, 17, Amanda Reason and Brittany Maclean) and 4x200m freestyle relay (same as above) and silver in the 4x100m medley relay (Lauren Earp, Paolina Carnevale, 17, Amanda Reason and Brittany Maclean).
Other local Toronto swimmers who also medalled, included:
* Graham Hawes, 20, a Sir Wilfrid Laurier grad who swims with Scarborough Swim Club, 2nd in 100m backstroke
* Alexander Hamilton, 16, Lawrence Park CI, who swims with the North York Aquatic Club, 3rd in 1500m freestyle
* Edward Liu, 17, Harbord CI, who swims with the Toronto Swim Club, 3rd in 100m butterfly.