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Tess Routliffe caps promising World Series with gold

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LIGNANO SIBBIADORO, Italy – Tess Routliffe of the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre-Quebec won the gold medal in the women’s 50-m butterfly on Sunday to cap the fourth stop on the Para swimming World Series circuit.

Routliffe, from Caledon, Ont., clocked 38.65 seconds for the victory. Denise Grahl of Germany was second in 39.56, Trinh Thi Bich Nhu of Vietnam third in 43.75 and Sabrina Duchesne of Quebec City fourth in 45.17. Danielle Kisser of HPC-Quebec was seventh in 54.76.

‘’Tess was resilient tonight,’’ said Mike Thompson, HPC-Quebec’s head coach. ‘’She was really focused in on the fact that she had some strong opposition and she took advantage of that and swam very well.’’

Duchesne also won gold medal in the 50 fly youth race.

The races on the World Series circuit are multiclass therefore the ranking is based on which swimmer is closest to the world record in their disability category.

Triple Paralympic Games champion Aurélie Rivard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., was a double medallist on the weekend with a silver in the 50-m freestyle and bronze in the 400-m freestyle. Samantha Ryan of Saskatoon was seventh in the 400 free.

‘’It was very satisfying for me to get a medal in both races,’’ said Rivard. ‘’We’re just starting a second phase of training this season after peaking for the Commonwealth Games. I’m looking forward to seeing improved performances at the next event.’’

Alec Elliott of Kitchener, Ont., was fifth in the 50-m free and sixth in the 100-m fly while Zach Zona of was eighth in the men’s 400-m free.

‘’I didn’t expect this competition to go as well as it did for us,’’ said Thompson. ‘’I’m extremely happy it did and now now we just need to carry the momentum into the next events.’’

The fifth stop on the circuit starts this Thursday in Sheffield, England.

‘’Having back-to-back meets is a good test for our swimmers,’’ said Thompson. ‘’Our athletes need a lot more opportunities to race internationally and that’s what is going to make them better. That is why we are spending all this time out here.’’

Full results: http://natatoria.com/nuoto_schedamanifestazione.php?lang=en&id_manifestazione=825