SHENZEN, China — Canada’s Markus Thormeyer won the men’s 200-metre backstroke at the season-opening stop of the FINA Champions Swim Series.
The 22-year-old from Tsawwassen, B.C., finished in a time of one minute 59.02 seconds in Wednesday’s race, ahead of Hungary’s Adam Telegdy (1:59.15), Jacob Pebley of the United States (1:59.95) and Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki (2:01.25).
"It was pretty nice to get up and race in early January against the best in the world," Thormeyer said. "It wasn’t easy but I still did the best I could and walked away with a win which I’m super proud of. Hopefully I can build off this for the rest of the year leading into the Olympic trials in March and April."
The FINA Champions Swim Series is in its second season. It uses a new format in which races only have finals of four competitors each.
According to the FINA website, the field is made up of the Olympic and world championships medallists and finalists, the top overall ranked swimmers from the FINA Swimming World Cup and the best in the FINA World rankings in each discipline.
In other results Wednesday, Canada’s Sydney Pickrem finished second in the women’s 200-metre individual medley behind Olympic and four-time world champion Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.
The series resumes Saturday in Beijing.
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