Canadian Olympic Trials Day 3 Recap

Third year Vike Jon McKay kicked off his Olympic Trials campaign in fine form on Wednesday, at the Pan Am Games Aquatic Centre in Toronto. Swimming the 400 free, Mckay qualified for the finals in eighth position, with his preliminaries time of 3:57.22. In the final, which was rich with local talent as six of the ten men were either from Victoria or call Victoria their place of residence, Mckay moved up a placing to finish seventh in a time of 3:57.46.

“Jon was really working on setting up rhythm and pacing for the 1500 metre freestyle and getting two swims in,” said UVic Vikes head coach and Pacific Coast Swimming Technical Director Peter Vizsolyi. “We didn’t fly him in till three days after everyone else, so we are still working on adjusting to the time zone change and setting up for Sunday.”

McKay’s best event, the 1500 metre freestyle, takes place Sunday in Toronto, and he will see a number of familiar faces in the event. Former UVic Vike Ryan Cochrane looks to clock one of the top times in the world this year, as he builds momentum heading into the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Swimming Canada can a maximum of two athletes in the event, as long as both are under the Olympic standard of 15:14.77 set by swimming’s international governing body, FINA. McKay’s current best time of 15:17.22, has him in the mix along with three other athletes that are within striking distance of the standard.

The men’s 1500 metre freestyle final goes at 5:00pm PST on Sunday, April 10th. The race can be live streamed at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/videos. Preliminary sessions go at 7:00am PDT each day, while finals run at 4:00pm PDT each night. More information can be found at http://www.pacificcoastswimming.com/.