TORONTO — A men’s final finally produced a pair of Rio-bound swimmers and Sydney Pickrem earned an Olympic berth in her bread-and-butter race at Friday’s swim trials.
The 18-year-old Pickrem was fastest in the women’s 200-metre individually medley at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre to qualify for the Summer Games in a second event.
She’d won a duel with Emily Overholt in the 400 I.M. earlier in the week with both women booking a ticket to Brazil.
But Pickrem made the 200-metre final in the 2015 world championship in Kazan, Russia, and finished sixth.
"Definitely was the first time I ever looked at myself as a world-class swimmer," Pickrem said. "It changed a lot in my mindset knowing I could be an Olympian and actually make the Olympic final."
Pickrem, whose parents Darren and Elizabeth are from Halifax, was born in Oldsmar, Fla., and chose to represent Canada.
In order to be nominated to the Canadian swim team that will compete in Rio, both an Olympic qualifying time and a top-two result must be achieved in a trials final.
Just three men had qualified from three different events over the first three days of trials. Friday’s 100-metre freestyle generated a pair of Canadians for Rio.
Santo Condorelli of Kenora, Ont., and Calgary’s Yuri Kisil went one-two and under the required 48.99 seconds. Condorelli, who was fourth in Kazan, was disappointed with his 48.16.
"Sub-par in my opinion," the 21-year-old said. "Forty-eight-one isn’t going to cut it when it comes to Rio. I have a lot more to work on. It kind of shows me where I’m at.
"I have another meet next week in Rio at a test event so hopefully I can do better than that. Hopefully I can improve from my time here."
But Kisil credited Condorelli for a pace that helped get him onto the team.
"I have to give a shout out to Santo," the 20-year-old said. "Getting to swim against the world’s best really pushed me to be better myself. He’s a big reason why I did that so well."
With Markus Thormeyer of Markham, Ont., and Evan Van Moerkerke of Tillsonburg, Ont., finishing third and fourth respectively for spots on the relay team, the number of men earning nomination to the Olympic squad increased to seven.
The female contingent swelled to 13 with two more days of racing remaining.
Butterfly specialist Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., was the lone woman emerging from the 200-metre final with both a victory and the required time.
The 32-year-old is Canada’s elder stateswoman now heading to the third Olympic Games of her career. Lacroix raced in the relay finals in 2008 and was 12th four years ago in London.
Pickrem, Condorelli and Lacroix were all lukewarm about their winning times Friday.
"I think I was a little bit tight," Lacroix said. "Most importantly it’s under the standard, so that’s all I wanted tonight."
Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson injected emotion into the night. The 20-year-old from Ottawa shed tears of joy after finishing runner-up to Pickrem in the individual medley with a time fast enough to qualify.
Seltenreich-Hodgson said 2015 was not a good year for her in swimming. She didn’t make the world championship and performed below her expectations at the Pan Am Games. Seltenreich-Hodgson hit the reset button for 2016.
"I was telling myself I absolutely can do it," she said. "Last year, I just got buried in so much self-doubt and guilt and all of these emotions that just pushed me in the wrong direction to where I wanted to be.
"This year I managed to flip a switch and I did everything that I could have done to post that time."
The Paralympic swim trials are running simultaneously with the Olympic trials, but the qualification criteria is different. Athletes will be named to the team Sunday. Swimmers in various classifications race together.
Tammy Cunning of Red Deer, Alta., lowered her own world record in the 50-metre butterfly twice Friday.
She lopped more than three seconds off it in the morning heats and dropped it again at night to 52.90 in the S4 classification, which is swimmers who have use of their arms, but can’t use their trunk or legs.
Riley Maclean of Vernon, B.C., carved over eight seconds off his Canadian record in the men’s 50 fly in the same classification over the course of the day to get it down to 1:00.45.
Danial Murphy of Bedford, N.S., dropped the Canadian record in the S5 50-fly to 47.87.
The Rio Olympics are Aug. 5-21. The Rio Paralympics are Sept. 7-18.
