Tomorrow is another day for swimmers

Scott Merrick. Scott Merrick of Clarkson Secondary School competes in a mixed 50 metre freestyle SWAD finals of the 2008 Ontario Federation of Secondary School Athletics championships held today at the Etobicoke Olympium. Staff photo by Sabrina Byrnes

Related Stories

There was no need for an adding machine to count the medal haul today for Mississaugans after the first day of the Ontario high school swimming championships.
Two bronze medals was the count for city swimmers competing at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships at the Etobicoke Olympium.
Janica Lee of Erindale Secondary School finished third in the ‘A’ final of the women’s 100-metre breaststroke and Andrew Yuen of Loyola Secondary School was third in the ‘A’ final of the junior men’s 50-metre breaststroke, claiming his first provincial medal.
Despite the medals, neither swimmer was impressed with their performance.
“I was a little tired,” said Yuen, who was slower than his preliminary time of 35.70 seconds. “I competed earlier and that slowed me down. This was my specialty.”
Lee felt so-so about her performance.
“It’s alright, I guess,” she said shortly after covering the distance in 1:16.04. “It’s not my personal-best time, though. I was trying for my personal-best, but I was just tired.”
Austin Rockett of Erindale called his performance “brutal” after finishing last (16th) overall in the consolation final of the men’s 200-metre freestyle.
“I did pretty bad,” said Rockett, who had a preliminary time of 2:01.68, missing out on qualifying for the ‘A’ final by .07 seconds.
Kairun Daikoku of Cawthra Park and Roberto Roberts of Iona finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in the men’s 15-and-over 200-metre freestyle. Roberts was in the lead after the first 50 metres, but slipped to fourth on the final lap and faltered.
“I started fast and that was my strategy,” said Roberts. “I didn’t have anything left at the end. But the 100-metre freestyle is my specialty and I’m in that tomorrow. Tomorrow is my day.”
Daikoku said he thought he was going just as fast as everyone else.
“I thought they’d all die at the end. I guess I was wrong," he said.
Loyola finished seventh in the ‘A’ final of the junior men’s 200-metre medley relay.
Nicolette Goncalves of Cawthra Park had a tough day in the pool as well. Competing in two events just seven minutes apart, she was fifth in the consolation final of the women’s 50-metre freestyle and seventh in the championship final of the women’s100-metre butterfly.
Hani Talpur of John Fraser posted a time of 35.39 seconds in the junior women’s 50-metre butterfly, almost half a second better than her qualifying time, but she only managed an eighth-place finish in the championship final.
Rushil Malhotra of Mentor College was fifth in the senior men’s 50-metre butterfly in 28.59 seconds. Jackie Chan of Rick Hansen was fourth in the senior men’s 100-metre breaststroke, finishing almost a second behind his best time of 1:14.
The Lorne Park Secondary School team of Stefanija Popovska, Melanie Dragan, Chloe O’Neill and Yvonne Kwan finished third in the consolation final (11th overall) in the senior women’s 200-metre medley relay.
onlinenews@mississauga.net