SURREY, B.C. – Sabastian Massabie and Reid Maxwell both broke Canadian records and put themselves in the picture for the Paris Paralympics with Minimum Qualifying Standard times during Friday’s opening night of competition at the Ken Demchuk International Invitational meet.

Massabie, of the Pacific Sea Wolves, smashed a 27 year-old Canadian record by winning the S4 200-metre freestyle in three minutes, 20.07 seconds. That shaved over 16 seconds off the old record of 3:36.98 set by Garth Harris at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games. Massabie had lowered the record to 3:34.38 during the morning preliminaries, then went 14 seconds faster in the evening even though he lost his googles coming off the starting blocks.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” said the Surrey, B.C., native. “I knew I could have done a bit better.”

Massabie’s final time was also below the Minimum Qualifying Standard (MQS) which will help determine the size of the team Swimming Canada will send to compete at next summer’s Paralympic Games in Paris.

Canadian swimmers must have secured a MQS to be invited to the 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Trials, Presented by Bell, to be held in Montreal in May.

Massabie also swam a Canadian record time of 41.26 seconds in the 50-m butterfly. That broke the old mark of 52.80 set earlier this year by Etienne Boutin-Cote.

Maxwell, of the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club, won S8 400-m freestyle in 4:37.39. That broke the previous record of 4:37.66 set in 2018 by Philippe Vachon.

It also was the second time in the day he went below the MQS of 4:43.89.  Maxwell said swimming 4:43.67 during the preliminaries took some pressure off the evening race.

“I was kind of happy I got the MQS out of the way,” said the Edmonton native. “This morning I was having a couple of issues. Tonight, I was just kind of focused on being on time.”

Paralympic and world champion Aurelie Rivard  of Team Quebec won a pair of races. The S10 swimmer who now lives in Quebec City won the women’s 400-m freestyle in 4:43.87 and the 100-m backstroke in 1:13.04.

Anto St-Germain of Team Quebec won the S12 400-m freestyle in 5:45.28 and the 100-m backstroke in 1:28.88

John Gillies of Swim Ontario won the S9 400-m freestyle in 5:44.93, while Caleb Arndt of the Newmarket Stringrays Swim Club topped the S13 class in 5:03.85

Brandon Stanton of the Grande Prairie Piranhas won men’s the S14 200-m freestyle in 2:06.44.

Jacob Brayshaw of Kisu won the S2 men’s 200-m freestyle in 7:36.20 and the 100-m backstroke in 3:47.80.

Miori Henault of Team Quebec won the women’s S14 200-m freestyle in 2:35.45 and the 100-m backstroke in 1:30.25.

Hannah Ouellette of the Saskatoon Lasers Swim Club took the S5 category in 3:55.52, edging Clemence Pare of SAMAK by .04 of second. Pare would win the S5 50-m butterfly in 1:06.79.

Niki Ens of the Saskatoon Lasers won the S3 race in 5:05.06 while Hannah Burns of the London Aquatic Club took the S4 in 4:47.33.

Canadian swimmers must have secured a MQS to be invited to the 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Trials, Presented by Bell, to be held in Montreal in May.

The qualifying window for the Paris Paralympics opened Oct. 1 last year and closes Jan. 31.

The meet, being held to Sunday at the Guildford Recreation Centre in Surrey, B.C., is expected to draw 74 swimmers from seven countries and 20 clubs across Canada. It is named in honour of Ken Demchuk, a Canadian swim official from Regina who developed a points system that allowed swimmers from different classifications to compete in the same race.

For more results and livestreaming please visit https://www.swimming.ca/en/events-results/events/ken-demchuk-international/.

Besides Canada, the meet has attracted swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Ghana, Ireland and Mexico.

In other races, Anne-Frede Brisson of Team Quebec won the S8 women’s 400-metre freestyle in 6:55.39 and the 100-m backstroke in 1:49.75.

Maxime Lavitt of the University of Manitoba took the 400-m S13 class in 5:16.90 and the 100-m backstroke in 1:17.90.

Ahalya Lettenberger of Rice University topped the 400-m S7 class in 5:24.25 and Australia’s Grace Brimelow the S9 in 5:12.47.

Roy Pan of Pacific Coast Swimming won the men’s S6 50-metre butterfly in 42.31 seconds. Swim Ontario’s Charles Giammichele won the S7 class in 36.86 seconds.

Tess Routliffe of the High Performance Centre _ Quebec won the women’s S7 50-metre butterfly in 37.02 seconds. Ireland’s Nicole Turner took the S6 class in 39.19 seconds.

Shelby Newkirk of the Saskatoon Lasers won the S6 100-m backstroke in 1:22.57 while her teammate Myriam Soliman the S7 in 1:48.26. Lizzi Smith of Nitro Swimming topped the S9 class in 1:13.78.

Leo Zheng of Flatland Swimming won the S6 men’s 100-m backstroke in 1:32.76. Swim Ontario’s Charles Giammichele won the S7 in 1:39.27, Felix Cowan of SAMAK the S9 in 1:15.12, Ken Stroud of the Richmond Rapids Swim Club the S10 in 1:09.13 and Tyson MacDonald of the Region of Waterloo Swim Club the S14 in 1:03.54

The team of Maxwell, Marian Barbu  of Team Quebec, Brenna White of Sherwood Park, Alta., and Sophie Wood of Pacific Coast Swimming won the mixed 400-m freestyle 34-point relay.