MONTREAL – With the Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming Trials 6½ weeks away, Zack Chetrat showed he’s on-point by winning men’s 200-metre butterfly on the final day of the Speedo Eastern Canadian Open.

Chetrat prevailed in two minutes 0.37 seconds at Complex sportif Claude-Robillard, outpacing the silver medallist, Ivan Cocunubo of host Club Aquatique de Montreal, by more than five seconds. Coupled with a 100-m butterfly win on Saturday, the 25-year-old Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Ontario athlete is feeling positive about his progress toward the Trials, which will be in the pool where he trains and where last summer he registered Canada’s first sub-1.57 200-m butterfly.

“Going into this weekend is more of a training meet, we were swimming through after doing a lot of work at our training camp in Florida last week and having about two days of real rest,” said Chetrat, 25, who is coached by Ben Titley at HPC-ONT.

“I was just trying to get in and see how close I could get to my times from Austin [the Pro Swim Series meet in mid-January]. In the 200 I was faster and I matched the time [54.97 seconds on Saturday] in the 100,” Chetrat clarified. “ It gives me a lot of confidence for Trials. I compare to where I was at this point last year. I’m matching times that I was doing in the summer, in February, so I am six months ahead of schedule. The feel is exciting. I was feeling amazing in Austin but I wasn’t feeling amazing here in Montreal and I still managed to drop some good times. That shows my bad days are starting to become pretty good.”

National team veteran Audrey Lacroix had a winning women’s 200-m butterfly time of 2:09.98, outkicking fellow Quebecer Katerine Savard (2:12.17) and 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak (2:15.48), who won Saturday’s 100-m butterfly.

I was feeling amazing in Austin but I wasn’t feeling amazing here in Montreal and I still managed to drop some good times. That shows my bad days are starting to become pretty good. – Zack Chetrat

Etobicoke Swimming Club’s Olivia Anderson, 16, won women’s 1,500-m freestyle in 16.42.97. That completed a triple to go with earlier 400-m and 800-m wins.

“It was a good solid preparation meet for us, just her second long-course meet of the year and going with just a little bit of rest,” said Kevin Thorburn, Anderson’s coach at Etobicoke. “We did a lot of work on pacing, and strategy, so it was a good warm-up meet for getting experience for Trials.”

Philippe Guertin of CAMO won the men’s 1,500-m freestyle in 15:54.86.

In 50-m freestyle, Karl Krug, of CAMO, won the men’s event in an even 23.00 seconds. Winnipeg native Chantal VanLandeghem led a HPC-ONT sweep of the women’s event with a time of 25.22, edging Sandrine Mainville (25.22) and Michelle Williams (25.67).

The Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming Trials are April 5 to 10 in Toronto.

For full results:
camonatation.org/resultats/Eastern16/index.html