Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Toba's Daniel swims to silver in metric mile
Grant adds bronze at Canada Games
FOUR years ago at the Canada Games in Regina, Winnipegger Leah Daniel dove into the pool and swam, and swam and swam.
"It was my first national meet and I remember the 1,500 (metres) was the first day and I had never actually swam a 1,500 before," Daniel said Monday via phone from Prince Edward Island, the site of her second Canada Games. "I swam that one pretty well and I learned a lot about it.
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"This time I knew what to expect and it seems to have helped."
That was Daniel's silver-medal understatement, as she finished second in this Games' 1,500 metres Monday at the CARI Aquatic Centre, knocking more than 19 seconds off her personal best and Manitoba record.
Daniel's time of 16 minutes 33.41 seconds was second only to B.C.'s Karyn Elizabeth Jewell, who won in a time of 16:29.45.
Any drips of water on the cell phone, calling home with such an excellent result?
No. Her parents George and Margaret traveled to P.E.I. to witness the medal. The celebration?
"Just going to watch a volleyball game tonight, then off to bed," Daniel said, mainly because she's got another busy day today, with the 400 metre individual medley. Wednesday, she will swim the 400 metre freestyle and Friday is the 800 metre freestyle.
"I like all three of them," Daniel said. "I'm still hoping to swim well and get some more medals."
Monday's race was close for the top four spots. Daniel beat Bridget Clare Coley of Ontario to the wall by a little more than two seconds and Coley edged B.C.'s Julianne Elise Brown by four onehundredths of a second for third.
"(Jewell), she was right beside me so I knew exactly where she was," Daniel recalled. "I could see the others coming up and I was trying to hold them off.
"I just didn't want them to pass me. At the end of the 15 you're hurting but I just didn't slow down. I just fought through the pain."
The former Grant Park student, now heading for her second year at Florida Gulf Coast University (environmental engineering), had a good idea things were going along quickly during Monday's race.
"Yeah, usually I just think about my stroke and I have my own race plan set out and I'm trying to follow it," she said. "I try not to get too caught up in what's happening elsewhere but I had a pretty good idea today that I was going faster than my best time.
"My goals, my plans for this race -- it went pretty close to what I wanted."
Daniel said he tries not to read too much into how the day's going as she prepares for any big race.
"You try to make the best of any situation," she said. "Some days you wake up tired. At a games, there are a lots of people in one room and you don't always get the best sleep.
"This is not like sleeping in your bed at home, but still you have to swim and you might as well do your best."
Manitoba's Chantal Asselin was eighth overall, winning the second heat in 17:17.01.
The other medal of the day came from Winnipeg's Chantal Grant, who won a bronze on the track in the women's 100 metres.
Grant was third in the final with a time of 12.04 seconds, behind winner Loudia Laarman of Alberta.
That moved Manitoba's medal count to nine.
tim.campbell@freeepress.mb.ca
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