Staff
Former Fort Frances Aquanaut Alex Parent reached the podium at the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic swim trials in Montreal yesterday, coming away with a bronze medal in the multi-class Para swimmer 50m freestyle event.
Parent, who competes in the S10/SB9/SM10 classification for swimmers with minimal weakness affecting their legs, was third in his division with a time of 27.18 seconds.
He just missed out on third in the overall race by one/10th of a second to visually-impaired athlete Brian Hills.
Nathan Stein took home the gold with a time of 24.26 seconds.
Parent, 22, also was third in his class—and fourth overall—in the 200m I.M. final yesterday with a time of 2:30.95, which was well back of winner Benoit Huot.
In other events during the week, Parent was fourth in class (fifth overall) in the 100m butterfly on Saturday, the winner in the ‘B’ final of the 100m freestyle on Friday, and second in the ‘B’ final of the 100m backstroke on Wednesday.
Parent, who attends McMaster University in Hamilton, now will have to wait and see if he makes Canada’s swim team for this year’s Paralympic Games in London, England, with the squad being announced in June.
In related news, Fort Frances Aquanaut Donovan Taylor failed to make the finals in all four of his events during the Olympic trials, with his highest finish being a 47th-place showing on Tuesday in the 400m I.M. with a time of 4:46.82.
Taylor, 17, then was 72nd in the 100m backstroke on Wednesday, 97th in the 100m butterfly on Saturday, and 77th in the 200m I.M. yesterday.
