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Three personal bests set up busy finals for Canada

News –

GOLD COAST, Australia – Mabel Zavaros, Jean-Michel Lavalliere and Markus Thormeyer advanced to finals for Canada in personal best times at Commonwealth Games Monday in Gold Coast, Australia.

Zavaros, who represents Oakville Aquatic Club, finished the 200-metre butterfly in 2:08.71, dropping more than a second off her best time to advance as third seed.

Lavalliere advanced in the men’s S7 50-m freestyle fourth in a personal best 30.37. The High Performance Centre-Quebec swimmer had to wait until Day 5 to make his debut.

Earlier in the session Thormeyer advanced to the men’s 200-m backstroke final in sixth at 1:59.68. His HPC-Vancouver teammate Josiah Binnema finished 12th in 2:02.06.

In women’s SB9 100-m breaststroke: Montreal’s Sarah Girard moved on to the final in fourth at 1:25.07, followed by Katarina Roxon of Kippens, N.L., in fifth at 1:25.75.

They will join Canadians in three other finals, highlighted by the women’s 100-m freestyle. which will be the sixth women’s final at these Games in which Canada has qualified the maximum three athletes. Taylor Ruck enters as second seed as she looks to tie the Canadian record of seven Commonwealth Games medals. She’ll be joined by her HPC-Ontario teammate Kayla Sanchez, and Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak of Toronto. Binnema (100-m butterfly) will also swim a final, as will Faith Knelson and Kierra Smith (women’s 100-m breaststroke).

Three Canadians advanced to semifinals in the women’s 50-m backstroke. Kylie Masse (Windsor, Ont./University of Toronto) was the top Canadian qualifier in third at 27.99, followed by Montreal’s Alexia Zevnik in eighth (28.75) and Jade Hannah of Halifax/HPC-Victoria in 11th (28.82).

In the men’s 50-m freestyle, Yuri Kisil (Calgary/HPC-Vancouver) advanced to semifinals in ninth at 22.40, while Toronto’s Ruslan Gaziev made it through in 15th at 22.80.

Finals get underway at 7:30 p.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET) and will be streamed live on the DAZN platform, which also features on-demand content.

Full results: https://results.gc2018.com/en/swimming/daily-schedule-date=2018-04-09.htm