Audrey Lacroix wins gold at international swim meet
Audrey Lacroix wins gold at international swim meet
CANET-EN-ROUSILLON, France – Two-time Olympian Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., won the gold medal in the women’s 200-m butterfly on Sunday to conclude the first stop on the Mare Nostrum swimming circuit.
Lacroix clocked two minutes and 07.63 seconds posting the fastest time after each of the four splits. Natsumi Hoshi of Japan was second in 2:08.15 and Zsuzsanna Jakabos of Hungary was third in 2:08.58.
‘’I am pleased with the victory,” said Lacroix. “There were several high calibre swimmers at this meet. My initial goal was to swim 2:09 but after my prelims (2:09.79) I knew I could be faster in the final.
Lacroix moved to Toronto six weeks ago to train at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre-Ontario under coach Ben Titley.
“This tour in Europe is a great opportunity to work with Ben at a competition before the world championships and Pan Am Games,” said Lacroix. “I felt great during the race and I had a lot of energy. We had just come off some intense training before coming over here and I thought I would feel more fatigued.”
Six other Canadians reached finals.
For the women Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C., and Martha McCabe of Toronto were were fourth and fifth in the 200-m breaststroke; Chantal Van Landeghem of Winnipeg fifth in the 100-m freestyle; Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge sixth in the 50-m butterfly and Hilary Caldwell of White Rock, B.C., eighth in the 100-m backstroke.
Smith came within 0.28 seconds of the podium in her final.
‘’My goal was to get into the medals,’’ she said. ‘’Still I’m happy with the overall performance.’’
Richard Funk of Edmonton was eighth in the 50-m breaststroke.
On Saturday Canada won three medals: Caldwell was second in the 200-m backstroke, Savard was also runner-up in the 100-m butterfly and two-time Olympic medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria was third in the 400-m freestyle.
The second stop on the circuit is this Wednesday and Thursday in Barcelona.
