Brent Hayden wins gold at World Cup, Tanya Hunks adds bronze

Nov 12, 2009
November, 12, 2009
 
STOCKHOLM – Brent Hayden of Vancouver won the gold medal and broke his Canadian record in the men’s 200-metre freestyle on Wednesday to conclude the third stop on the FINA World Cup swimming circuit.

Hayden clocked one minute and 41.65 seconds to eclipse his previous national mark of 1:41.77 set this past August at the British Grand Prix. Darian Townsend of South Africa, who led most of the way took the silver in 1:41.99 and Nicolas Oliveira of Brazil was third in 1:42.37.

“I really wanted to make a run for that world record,” said Hayden, who was chasing the 1:40.83 world mark set by Paul Biedermann of Germany last year. “I was a bit disappointed when I saw the time but afterwards I realized I raced hard and I won it.”

In Wednesday’s race, Hayden was second at all three splits – the 50, 100 and 150 metre marks.

“The 200 is a race that I feel I have a lot of potential in and I think it can be up there with my 100 for the next four years,” said Hayden. “I definitely need to improve the second half of that race if I’m going to challenge for the record at the next World Cup.”

The victory is Hayden’s fourth medal and third Canadian short course record on the circuit within a week. He won two silver at the World Cup in Moscow this past weekend and was second in the 100 freestyle here on Tuesday, lowering his national record in the event for a second time in less than a week.

“Brent is getting more and more confident in the 200,” said Tom Johnson, head coach at the Vancouver national training center. “It’s a great race for him and these are the kind of challenges he needs to face. The field here this week was one of the toughest I’ve seen at a World Cup.”

In preliminaries, Stefan Hirniak and Blake Worsley, both of Victoria, were 11th and 12th and did not advance.

In the women’s 400 individual medley, world championship finalist Tanya Hunks of Vancouver took the bronze clocking 4:32.48. Mireia Belmonte of Spain was the winner in a World Cup record 4:26.40 and Kathryn Meaklim of South Africa was second in 4:28.23.

“It’s really exciting to have such a great start to a new season,” said Hunks. “The best part of my race was the breaststroke I was really glad too see that starting to com together for me. It’s been a big focus for me in practice.”

Johnson says the 28-year-old Hunks is continuing to make her mark on the world scene.

“She’s quite a story,” said Johnson. “She’s developed into one of the best IMers in the world in an event that swimmers race early in their careers. We put her into some tough situations here and she’s responded really well.”

Just 20 minutes later, Hunks placed seventh in the women’s 200-metre butterfly clocking 2:08.68. Zige Liu of China set a world record winning the race in 2:02.50. Katerine Savard of Quebec City was 18th in the prelims.

In preliminaries, Jennifer Beckberger of Ajax, Ont., just missed reaching two finals placing ninth in the women’s 100-meter individual medley and 10th in the 100 freestyle. Matt Hawes of Ottawa was 10th in the 200 backstroke.

The same 11-member Canadian team heads to Berlin for World Cup action this Saturday and Sunday.

Results can be found at: http://omegatiming.com/swimming/racearchives/index.htm

Live web streaming can be found at: http://www.universalsports.com/index.html