TORONTO – Nicholas Bennett toppled a national record as the first-ever Speedo Canadian Swimming Open got underway Wednesday at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

The pool saw several other fast swims on the first night of the four-day meet, including world’s fastest 200-m women’s freestyle so far this year by Summer McIntosh.

Bennett started the night off with an S14 Canadian record 1:54.20 in the Para 200-m freestyle multi-class. Angela Marina of Brantford Aquatic Club took the women’s multi-class 200 free in 2:18.

“That felt about 10 times easier than this morning, even with the two-and-a-half second drop,” Bennett said.

He credited his sister and coach at Red Deer Catalina Swim Club, Haley Bennett-Osborne, for the race strategy.

“I think I just listened to my coach a little bit more. We held back on the first 150 then came in with the legs. I was able to use my reserves and finally break that,” said the world champion, who held the previous record of 1:54.41. “If we can get a best time untapered, unrested, I think we’re gearing up for something even better in the following months.”

McIntosh followed with a 1:54 of her own in the women’s 200 free, 1:54.21 to be exact, the fastest time in the world in 2024.

“Overall I was really happy with that. I felt quite strong,” said McIntosh, who also finished second in the 100 back (59.96). “To get a result like that in the training that I’m in is pretty good. I’m overall happy with it. I don’t have any crazy expectations for this meet or anything like that but anytime I get to come back to Toronto I’m always happy. It’s such an amazing pool and the crowd’s always awesome.”

Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivieres, Que., who swims for Montreal’s CAMO club, swam a personal best 1:56.76 for second place.

Penny Oleksiak continued her comeback from injury with a fifth-place finish. Her time of 1:59.48 was her first under two minutes since the World Aquatics Championships in June 2022.

“I feel good because right now my front end is feeling really strong and I feel really confident about that,” Oleksiak said. “Now I’ve got to work on my back end and that comes with training and time and learning from meets like this.”

Other winners included:
Finlay Knox (High Performance Centre – Vancouver), men’s 200 free (1:48.39)
Jaime Cosgriffe (Oakville), Para women’s 100 back multi-class (1:09.29)
Maggie Mac Neil (London Aquatic Club), women’s 100 back (59.93)
Raben Dommann (HPC-Vancouver), men’s 100 back (55.16)
Mabel Zavaros (Markham Aquatic Club), women’s 200 butterfly (2:11.88)
Kevin Zhang (Waterloo), men’s 200 butterfly (2:00.18)
Jordan Tucker (Royal City Aquatics), Para women’s 50 butterfly (54.78)
Laila Oravsky (Barrie Trojans), women’s 1,500 freestyle (17:10.36)
Timothe Barbeau (Neptune Natation), men’s 800 freestyle (8:06.73)

The meet continues through Saturday, with preliminary heats at 9:30 a.m. each day and finals at 6 p.m. Single day tickets and full event passes for all sessions can be purchased here.

Full results: https://results.swimontario.com/liveresults/2024/OPEN/