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Golden Girl Katerine Savard Wins 100m Butterfly in Record Time

Jul 25, 2014  - Sanne Huesken

Tears of Joy for the 21 year old swimmer of Pont Rouge, Quebec, Katerine Savard, after she won the Women’s 100m Butterfly in record breaking time. The second gold for Canada and a new Games record; it’s exactly what Savard said she wanted to do after swimming the heats in the morning.   Savard, who moved to Montreal’s CAMO club earlier this year said; “It was really emotional, I had a pretty tough year because I moved and changed my coach, so I’m very happy with my achievement.”  Savard out-touched silver medallist Siobhan O’Connor of England who led by 0.21 at the turn, by 0.05 seconds, winning gold and setting a new record at 57.40. “I knew it would be a good race, I knew it would be close, so I tried really hard in the last 50.”  She went on to saying that it really helped having someone like Ryan in the team, who, like Savard, did not panic during the race and managed to catch up with his competitor to win the gold. “Just to see him win the gold medal last night was great and I was really excited for tonight because I knew it would be my turn.”   Audrey Lacroix, bronze medalist for the 100m Butterfly during the 2006 Games in Melbourne finished seventh at 58.78. “I went in to have fun. I was expecting to get a best time, which didn’t happen for me, it was a pretty tough race, but it was a good experience for my 200m later.” Lacroix, who is scheduled to swim the 200m Butterfly on Monday, will be a swimmer to watch as she tries to defend her silver title from the 2010 Games in Delhi.   The Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay team, with an average age of 19, swam a great race against the more experienced teams of South Africa and Australia. Yuri Kisil was third to touch the wall after the first 100m, making the hearts of all the Canadian fans race a little faster. The men finished fifth, with a time of 3:19:68, and managed to improve on their time from the heats by nearly a second. “Everyone had tighter turnovers and we definitely improved on what we had to,” said Russell Wood, who had to make a quick recovery after his 100m Backstroke race. “We knew they were going to be out quick so we just gave it all we have.”   Morgan Bird, who swam in the Women’s S8 100m Freestyle, came fourth with a time of 1:10:07, just missing the podium. “It’s been such an honor to compete for Canada as one of the Para-athletes that were chosen to come. I just want to do Canada proud,” said Bird, who loved the energy in the pool and thought the crowd was amazing. Tera van Beilen of the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre in Vancouver, finished fifth in the women’s 50m Breaststroke, swimming the second fastest 50 of her career, with a time of 31.22. Van Beilen’s HPC-Vancouver teammate, Luke Reilly, had said he was excited and had achieved his goal to place for the 400m Individual Medley final, in which he finished in seventh place. Russell Wood was eighth in the 100m Backstroke, at 54.56.   In the Semi-finals that took place on Friday, Richard Funk showed a funky performance in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke, swimming with a world-class field of athletes and achieving a lifetime best of 1:00.51. His time puts him through in fifth position for the finals on Saturday. Sinead Russell and Brooklyn Snodgrass advanced in third and sixth place for the 100m Backtroke finals, while Hilary Caldwell just missed qualifying for the finals in ninth.   The 50m Freestyle Semi-final saw three Canadians swim for a spot in the final, with 30-year-old veteran Victoria Poon advancing in seventh position with a time of 25.15. Michelle Williams and Sandrine Maiville both missed the finals, placing in 9th and 13th position.   With four swimmers advancing to finals and Savard’s golden tears to end the night, Day 2 at the Games was another success for Canada.