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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

CANADA GAMES Vanlandeghem goes golden again

Wins 100 backstroke by blink of an eye, more medals could be on way

By: Tim Campbell

Posted: 08/27/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THE blink of an eye would be a runaway the way Chantal Vanlandeghem is swimming at the Canada Games.The 15-year-old Winnipegger scored her second gold medal of the Games on Wednesday by a similar miniscule margin over a rival from Ontario.

This time, it was two one-hundredths of a second in the 100-metre backstroke over Sinead Russell. Tuesday, the difference between the two was three one-hundredths in the 100-metre freestyle.

Comparatively, the average eye takes an eternity to blink, about three-tenths of a second.

"Oh, that's so close," Vanlandeghem said via phone from P.E.I. Wednesday night. "I knew we were beside each other. We touched the wall... and I didn't realize it was that close.

"Me, I just look up at the scoreboard. Usually you have a pretty good view of that. That's pretty amazing it's that close."

Vanlandeghem added a third medal to her haul later Wednesday, pulling in a bronze in the 50-metre butterfly.

Of course it was close.

Her time of 27.04 seconds was seven one-hundredths behind Saskatchewan's Kendra Chernoff and just 13 one-hundredths behind winner Katherine Savard of Nova Scotia.

In winning her second gold and Manitoba's fourth of these Games, Vanlandeghem touched the wall of the CARI Aquatic Centre pool in 56.26 seconds in the backstroke, taking almost a second off her personal best.

"I'm really happy with that because for all my races, I've just been going in looking for a best time," said the new Grade 10 student at Vincent Massey Collegiate.

"Sinead is a great competitor. She has pulled me down to those times. She always pulls it fast."

After breaking through for a first Games gold in Tuesday's freestyle, Vanlandeghem said she spent no time at all thinking about pressure for future events.

"I don't think it puts on more pressure, I think it just added to my confidence level last night," she said. "My teammates are just telling me, 'Good job,' and my coach always has good advice.

"The plan today was to go out and relax if possible, but to try to go fast and stay with the group, then really go the last 50. The whole thing goes by pretty fast once you get going but I felt pretty relaxed when it started today and it went well."

Vanlandeghem isn't done yet at these Games, either. She'll swim the 100-metre butterfly and 200-metre backstroke today, then the 50-metre freestyle on Friday.

Manitoba narrowly missed another medal at the Games' pool on Wednesday when Winnipeg's Leah Daniel, a silver medalist in the 1,500-metre freestyle, was fourth in the 400-metre freestyle in a time of 4:10.91.

Elsewhere Wednesday, Manitoba's baseball team dropped its first game, a 14-3 decision to British Columbia.

Manitoba, now 3-1, won the tiebreaker against Alberta and moves to today's semifinal against 3-1 Quebec.

The men's volleyball beat B.C. 3-0 to get to 3-1, good enough to finish second in Pool A and advance to a quarterfinal game.

In women's volleyball, Manitoba edged Alberta 3-2 (26-24, 27-25, 15-25, 23-25, 15-13) to finish 5-0 in Pool D and move on to a semifinal game.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 27, 2009 C3

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