By Louis Daignault for Swimming Canada

DUBAI, UAE – Canada produced its best day this week on the FINA World Cup circuit with three swimmers reaching finals.

In the women’s 200-m breaststroke, Ashley McGregor of Pointe-Claire, Que., finished in seventh place clocking two minutes and 31.40 seconds. Viktoria Zeynep Gunes of Turkey won the gold medal, Runa Imai of Japan was second and her compatriot Rie Kaneto third.

‘’It was a lot of fun to be in the final tonight,’’ said McGregor. ‘’I was really pleased to get faster times here than in Doha. I saw improvements in my distance per stroke which also means I was gliding better.’’

In the women’s 50-m butterfly, Caroline Lapierre-Lemire of Pointe-Claire was also seventh in 27.68.  The top-three were Felicia Lee of the U.S. in 26.69, Alexandra Touretski of Switzerland in 26.90 and Alia Atkinson of Jamaica in 26.95.

‘’That’s a result I wasn’t expecting,’’ said Lapierre-Lemire. ‘’The freestyle is usually my best event and I train a lot more in that than the butterfly. I guess the fact I was less stressed in than in my freestyle made the difference.”

MacKenzie Glover of Winnipeg was the most successful Canadian at the last two World Cups reaching four finals including Saturday’s 100-m backstroke in 1:02.39 for eighth place. Two-time Olympic champion Emily Seebhom of Australia took the gold with Katinka Hosszu of Hungary second and Harriet Cooper of Britain third.

‘’This World Cup tour has been a great experience for me and very successful,’’ said Glover, 17. ‘’The opportunity to race against such a strong and experienced field is going to be very valuable for me.’’

Canada fielded a young seven-member team for the last two World Cup stops in Doha and Dubai. The other swimmers were Barbara Jardin of Montreal, Javier Acevedo and Ryan Telford, both of Ajax, Ont., and Antoie Bujold of Pointe-Claire.

Full results: OMEGA Timing