Brent Hayden, joint world 100m free champion and a man much affected by the fast-suit woe of 2008, is riding the wave once more: at Spring s/c Nationals in Toronto he lowered national record in the 50 freestyle and 200 freestyle and helped the University of British Columbia Dolphins improve the Canadian 4x50 freestyle record.
There were also new Canadian marks from Scott Dickens and Savannah King, both, like Hayden, of Vancouver, and Amanda Reason of Etobicoke, Ontario, and Victoria Poon in the lead-off slot in the 4x50m relay. No reports of multiple suits or any of that jiggery pokery as yet. Mostly LZRs and B70, and one at a time, according to folk at the meet.
In the 200 free, Hayden cracked out a 1:42.35, inside the 1:43.31 set last month by Colin Russell, who finished second at nationals yesterday in 1:42.87, with third going to Brian Johns, also Vancouver, on 1:44.57.
"That was a lot faster than my previous best," said Hayden. "I think I can still be faster on the front end of the race and it’s something I need to work on. My endurance has really come around and I’ve come off a really effective period of dry land training which has made a big difference."
In the 4x50 freestyle relay, Hayden led off for UBC with a 21.83 national mark, which contributed to a total time 2.5sec inside the previous Canadian mark, of 1:27.11, with the help of Rory Biskupski, Dickens and Tommy Gossland.
In the 1,500 freestyle, 16-year-old King broke the oldest Canadian short course record on the books, her 16:00.68 effort confining the of 16:09.32- 1989 standard of Debbie Wurzburger of Edmonton to history. Zsofi Balazs of Toronto was second in 16:22.10 and Bridget Coley of Hamilton was third in 16:31.89.
"I was aiming for the record but it's still amazing to get it," said King. "To be almost the first Canadian under 16 minutes is very exciting. I could hear the splits so I knew I was on track for the record during the race. Still I wasn't expecting to be that far under."
Dickens clocked a 27.04 record in the 50m breaststroke, 0.49sec inside the mark he established last month and 0.47sec inside the record of 27.51 he set in heats at nationals yesterday.
In the women's equivalent, Reason, 15, clocked 29.96, inside the 30.48 record she established at Western Nationals last month. Annamay Pierse came home second in 30.32. The seventh record came in the 4x50m free, courtesy of Victoria Poon's lead-off split.
