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Markus Thormeyer sees room for improvement after two wins in opening night of Mel Zajac Jr.

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VANCOUVER – A pair of wins Friday night showed Markus Thormeyer what he’s doing right, but maybe more importantly what he needs to improve on as the summer progresses.

Thormeyer won the 200-metre backstroke, then returned to win the 200-m freestyle on the opening night of the 54th annual Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet being held at the UBC Aquatic Centre.

“They showed me where I need to be going,” said the Delta, B.C., native who trains at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver. “You highlight the good stuff and put the bad stuff under a microscope so you can take it apart for the summer.”

Thormeyer won the 200-back in two minutes, 0.65 seconds. Anton Loncar of Croatia was second in 2:01.73 followed by Samuel Lida of the U.S. junior team in 2:03.09.

In the 200-m freestyle, Thormeyer touched the wall first in 1:50.18.  Samuel Belanger of Laval University, a member of the Canadian junior team, was second in 1:51.95, while Yuri Kisil, who trains at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver was third in 1:53.15.

Thormeyer is part of the Canadian team that will compete at this summer’s FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He also was one of 14 members of Swimming Canada’s national men’s team who participated in a grueling eight-day training camp prior to the meet.

“It was a lot of hard work,” Thormeyer said about the camp. “It’s really good to see I’m able to race.

“There is a fight in me. I’m pleased the results showed I can still put up a race under a lot of stress.”

Thormeyer and Kisil later joined Carson Olafson of the High Performance Centre – Vancouver and Antoine Bernard-Lalonde of CAMO to win the 4×100-m freestyle relay in 3:23.96.

The Mel Zajac meet, which ends Sunday, has attracted over 500 swimmers from across Canada and the U.S. One of the oldest annual swim meets in Canada, the Zajac meet is also the first major competition in the $39-million University of British Columbia Aquatic Centre. Full meet results can be found at http://results.teamunify.com/canubc/2017/zajac/.

MacKenzie Padington, another swimmer heading to Budapest, also a busy night. She won the 200-m freestyle in 1:59.49.  About 20 minutes later she swam 4:45.62 to take second in the 400-m individual medley.  Victoria’s Sarah Darcel, who swims with Island Swimming, won in 4:43.32.

“I’m ready to go to bed,” said Padington, who trains at the High Performance Centre – Victoria.

“It was good. There were a lot of things in there I could have worked on. There are so many things I need to try and fix within these next two months going into worlds.”

Padington was noticeable in the pool in a bright pink cap.

“I like sticking out,” said the 18-year-old from Campbell River, B.C. “I like people knowing that it’s me. When I saw it, I took it, and I haven’t stopped wearing it at every meet since.”

Olympic bronze medallist Hilary Caldwell cruised to victory in the 200-m backstroke in 2:10.98. Summer Alexandra of the U.S. junior team was second in 2:13.04 while 15-year-old Jade Hannah of Beaverbank, N.S., was third in 2:14.31.

“I knew the speed wouldn’t necessary be there,” said Caldwell. “We’ve been hammering weights and training pretty hard the last few weeks.

“It was all right. This is sort of the first measure. We will hopefully get faster the next couple times we swim.”

Hannah, who moved to B.C. last October to train with the NextGen Program at the High Performance Centre – Victoria, later won the 50-m butterfly in 27.07 seconds.

“She’s a really good young swimmer,” said coach Brad Dingey. “The move out for her has been fantastic. It’s put her in an environment where she gets to train and live day to day with a national team program.”

In other races:

_ Richard Funk, who trains at the High Performance Centre – Ontario, set a meet record by winning the 100-m breaststroke in 1.00.70. That broke the old mark of 1:01.57 set by former Olympic team member Scott Dickens in May 2012.

_ Hau-Li Fan of the UBC Dolphins Swim Club, won the men’s 800-m freestyle in 8:15.16. Colin Gilbert of the Kamloops Swim Club was second in 8:17.41 while Jon McKay of the University of Victoria Vikes was third in 8:20.81.

_ Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., won the 100-m breaststroke in 1:08.53. Her world championship teammate Kierra Smith of Kelowna, B.C., was third in 1:08.70. Kelsey Wog of Winnipeg was second in 1:08.56.

_ Tristan Cote of the Etobicoke Swimming Club won the men’s 400-IM in 4:20.34.

_ Dillon Virva of the University of Las Vegas won the men’s 50-m fly in a meet record time of 24.45 seconds. That was .02 faster than the old mark set by Kelly Aspinall of Nanoose Bay, B.C., om 2013.

_ Taylor Ault of the U.S. junior team won the women’s 1,500-m freestyle in 16:41.01. Brooke Lamoureux of Island Swimming was third in 17:28.58.

_ The U.S. junior team won the women’s 4×100-m freestyle relay in 3:48.45. The Canadian team of Kyla Leible of Red Deer, Jessica Luo of Pacific Coast Swimming, Aleka Gold of the Toronto Swim Club and Octavia Lau of HYACK were second in 3:50.44.