Huot and Mortimer break their world records at Paralympic trials

Benoit Huot of Montreal and Summer Mortimer of Hamilton lowered their world records in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle respectively on Sunday to conclude the Paralympic swimming trials presented by RBC.

In the 200 IM, Huot clocked 2:10.26 to eclipse his previous world mark in the S10 disability category of 2:11.30 set at the 2010 world championships. Donovan Tildesley of Vancouver ranked second in the race and Issac Bouckley of Oshawa, Ont.

‘’The 200 IM is my actually my first race at the Games and that could make a difference,’’ said Huot, preparing for his fourth Paralympics. ‘’I’ll be more rested but regardless it’ll be my priority event for London. It should give me a really good start to the Games.’’

In the women’s 50 freestyle, Mortimer took the final in 28.17 to eclipse her S10 world mark of 28.30 set at the 2010 worlds. Valérie Grand’Maison of Montreal was only 0.11 seconds from her national S13 mark finishing in 27.99.

‘’It’s great, it’s been awhile,’’ said Mortimer, a quadruple world champion in 2010. ‘’I wanted to at least beat the record and actually go into the 27 range. My goal for this meet was to be technically perfect for these races and these times are an added bonus for me.’’

While Huot improved one of his records, he lost his 50 freestyle national mark to surging Nathan Stein of Surrey, B.C., one of the major Para swimmer revelations this week. Stein had equalled the mark in the preliminaries at 24.65 then clocked 24.26 in the final.

‘’It was a good swim but I was hoping to get under that 24 second benchmark,’’ said Stein, who turned 20 on Wednesday. ‘’To break one of Benoit’s record is an honour. I came here wanting to put my name out there and show the rest of the world I’m coming.’’

The 2012 Paralympic swimming team won’t be finalized until June.
 

For more information:
Martin Richard
Director, Communications
Swimming Canada
Mob. 613-725-4339
Email: mrichard@swimming.ca