Music: {allcanada} CANADIAN SWIMMERS SWEEP RELAY PODIUM AT INDIANAPOLIS GP

Thursday, March 3, 2011

{allcanada} CANADIAN SWIMMERS SWEEP RELAY PODIUM AT INDIANAPOLIS GP

INDIANAPOLIS -- Canadian relay teams swept the medals in the women's 4x100-metre freestyle on Thursday to open the Indianapolis Grand Prix swimming competition.

Erica Morningstar of Calgary, Chantal Van Landeghem of Winnipeg, Genevieve Saumur of Montreal and Seanna Mitchell of Calgary combined for the gold medal, finishing in three minutes 44.98 seconds.

"The race was interesting," said Saumur, 23, a 2008 Olympic team member. "It was fun to have a couple of youngsters with us and they really came through. Even though we were raring for the first time together there was a great team spirit. It's important that we all get these relay racing experiences in preparation for the world championships."

Victoria Poon and Sandrine Mainville of Montreal, Lindsay Delmar of Calgary and Victoria Chan of Richmond Hill, Ont., won silver in 3:46.01.

Amanda Reason of Windsor, Ont., Chantique Payne of Guelph, Ont., Cynthia Pammett of Peterborough, Ont., and Lauren Earp of Toronto won bronze in 3:51.90.

In the men's 4x100 freestyle relay, Richard Hortness and Tobias Oriwol of Toronto, Joe Bartoch of London, Ont., and Colin Russell of Oakville, Ont., combined to win gold in 3:25.07.

Andrew Ford of Guelph took bronze in the men's 400 individual medley and Morningstar placed third in the women's 100 breaststroke. Ashley McGregor of Pointe-Claire, Que., was fifth.

American star Michael Phelps posted the fastest times in the world this year in both of his events.

Phelps won the 200-metre freestyle in one minute 46.27 seconds, and the 100 butterfly in 51.75 seconds.

He improved on his disappointing performance in January in the Austin Grand Prix. In that meet, he was relegated to the consolation final in the 200 free, where he finished in 1:49.90. He bettered that time in prelims on Thursday and was pleased with his finals mark. Ryan Lochte, who won the 200 free in Austin, finished fourth in 1:49.41.

Lochte and Phelps didn't go head-to-head in the 100 fly because Lochte failed to reach the final. He finished fourth in the consolation heat with a time of 53.92 seconds.