Donovan Tildesley to Lead Canada at Paralympics

The Canadian Paralympic Committee has named Donovan Tildesley as the flag bearer for Team Canada heading in to the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies.

Tildesley, a 24-year-old visually impaired swimmer, was given the honour during a Team Canada function in Beijing on Thursday. The Vancouver native was one of three finalists — alongside wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc and boccia player Paul Gauthier — named earlier this week.

"I was stunned when I first heard the decision," Tildesley, who was informed of the decision by chef de mission Debbie Low at the end of Thursday's rally for the Canadian team, told CBCSports.ca.

"Honestly, I was hoping to get the nod but I didn't expect to. I was up against some fairly stiff competition from some great athletes. Paul Gauthier and Chantal Petitclerc, I thought, had much longer resumés and more experience than me — a relative newcomer compared to them.

"So when I heard my name announced a bolt of electricity shot through my body. I was speechless for about 30 seconds."

Congratulations Donovan!!!!

CBC Article - click here.
SNC Article - click here.

2008 Beijing Olympic Games
August 9 - 17, 2008

BRIAN JOHNS, BRENT HAYDEN, TANYA HUNKS,
SAVANNAH KING, ANNAMAY PIERSE

Ryan Cochrane won the bronze medal in the 1500 freestyle to claim Canada's first medal in the pool since Curtis Myden in 2000. Cochrane clocked 14:42.69 to win the bronze medal. Cochrane's time from the heats would have tied him for the Gold medal. The 19 year old from Victoria is now tied for the second fastest swimmer of all time in the event and he seems to be on track to be the future of world distance freestyle swimming.

Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games becoming the single most decorated Olympian from a single games, passing Mark Spitz from 1972. Phelps won the 200 Free, 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Fly, 4x100 Free, 4x100 Medley and 4x200 Free events breaking seven world records and one Olympic Record (100 fly).

41 year old Dara Torres, USA, won the silver medal in the women's 50 freestyle and the 4x100 medley relay. Torres came back out of retirement to qualify for her fifth Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2008) and becomes the oldest individual swimming medalist at an Olympic Games.

Two big stories today saw the World Record of Janet Evans go down in the 800 freestyle. For a long time everyone thought that it would be Kate Ziegler or Katie Hoff who would finally break the 22 year old record but neither one of them made the final. It would be Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain clocking 8:14.10 to erase the oldest record on he books.

Michael Phelps won his seventh gold medal in dramatic fashion coming from behind on the final stroke to win by 0.01 over Milorad Cavic from Serbia. Cavic had led from the start but glided to the finish as Phelps drove to the wall to win by less than a fingernail and keep his drive for 8 gold alive.

Brent Hayden joined Jake Tapp, Mike Brown and Joe Bartoch on the 4x100 Medley relay heats to finish 10th with a time of 3:35.56. Hayden split 46.84 on the freestyle leg.

Ryan Cochrane briefly held the Olympic Record in the men's 1500 freestyle winning his heat in 14:40.84 to become the second fastest swimmer in the history of the event behind WR holder Grant Hackett.

Annamay Pierse broke her own Canadian record for the second time at the Olympic Games clocking 2:23.77 to finish in 6th overall in the womens 200 breaststroke. Rebecca Soni, USA, won the event in a World Record time of 2:20.22.

Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal tonight winning the men's 200 IM. Phelps has won all six of his races in World Record times and is one win away from tying Mark Spitz's performance of 7 for 7 (all in WR times) in 1972.

Tanya Hunks was the top Canadian during today's preliminaries swimming to a 23rd place finish in the women's 800 freestyle posting a time of 8:38.

"It's not quite the time I was looking for,’’ she said.  ‘’I am disapointed in my race but I'm happy that I never gave up. I cherish my Olympic experience and my journey to get there. It has made me into what I am now. My plans now is to go cheer on my teammates and I will take a few weeks to think about where to go from there."

TEAM RANKINGS - These team rankings are based on a scoring system of 20, 17, 16, 15, 14,13,12, 11 for the top 8 finalists and 9, 7 ,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 9th through 16th position in all events so far. The scores below are up to and including this mornings heats session:

New Canadian Record for Annamay Pierse in he women's 200 breaststroke semi final. Pierse clocked 2:23.94 and will enter tomorrow's final in 5th position. Pierse broke her own Canadian record that she had set at the 2008 Beijing Olympic trials in a time of 2:24.65.

Mike Brown entered the 200 breaststroke final in second position and finished 4th in 2:09.03 narrowly missing out on an Olympic Medal by 0.09.

Keith Beavers had a busy night swimming in the 200 IM and 200 Backstroke semi finals. Beavers finished in 12th spot in the 200 backstroke in a new Canadian record time of 1:58.50 breaking the old record of 1:58.64 held by our very own Matt Hawes from 2007. Tobias Oriwol finished in 15th place in the 200 back semi final. In the 200 IM Beavers clocked 1:59.43 to finish 8th and advance to the final.

TEAM RANKINGS - These team rankings are based on a scoring system of 20, 17, 16, 15, 14,13,12, 11 for the top 8 finalists and 9, 7 ,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 9th through 16th position in all events so far. The scores below are up to and including the finals session described above:

Annamay Pierse swam to a seventh place finish in the women's 200 breaststroke heats in 2:25.01 and will swim in the semi finals looking for a spot in the final. Interesting to note that defending Olympic Champion Amanda Beard did not advance to the semi finals finishing 18th.

Brian Johns posted a time of 2:00.66 to tie for 18th overall in he men's 200 IM and will not advance to the semi finals. Keith Beavers broke the Canadian Record in the heats posting a 1:59.19 and placed 8th overall.

The Canadian women's 4x200 freestyle relay also failed to advance to the finals finishing in 10th overall with a time of 7:56.26. The team consisted of Stephanie Horner, Genevieve Samur, Erica Morningstar and Julia Wilkinson.

TEAM RANKINGS - These team rankings are based on a scoring system of 20, 17, 16, 15, 14,13,12, 11 for the top 8 finalists and 9, 7 ,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 9th through 16th position in all events so far. The scores below are up to and including this mornings heats session:

In the semi-finals of the 100 freestyle Brent Hayden swam a time of 48.20, two-tenths of a second faster than what he won the World Championships in last year, and finished 11th overall. It took a 48.07 to make the final and the top time was a world record 47.05 for Eamon Sullivan from Australia.

The final event of the program saw Hayden join Brian Johns, Andrew Hurd and Colin Russell on the men's 4x200 freestyle relay. The four men broke the Canadian record in a time of 7:05.77 with Hayden having the third fastest split of the entire field with a 1:44.42.

Other Canadians in action saw Mike Brown swim an amazing semi final of the 200 breaststroke to finish second overall in to the final in a time of 2:08.84 making him the third fastest swimmer in history for that event. Only Brendan Hansen and Japan's Kosuke Kitajima have been faster. Coming in to the Olympics Brown's Canadian record was 2:11.00. Julia Wilkinson finished the womens 200 IM in 7th place in 2:12.43.

Brent Hayden posted a time of 47.84 and will advance to the semi finals of the 100 freestyle in third place. Hayden broke his Canadian record leading off the 4x100 freestyle relay earlier in the week posting a time of 47.56. This is only the second time Hayden has broken 48.00 in his career.

Brian Johns joined Rick Say, Adam Sioui and Andrew Hurd to qualify the men's 4x200 freestyle relay team for the finals in a new Canadian Record time of 7:08.04 in 5th place overall. It looks like two of them will be replaced with Brent Hayden and Colin Russel for the final.

Mike Brown broke the Canadian record in his heat of the mens 200 breaststroke in 2:09.84 and will advance to the semi final in fifth place overall. Brown held the old Canadian record in 2:11.00 from the 2008 Beijing Trials this past April.

Audrey Lacroix will also advance to the semi finals in the womens 200 butterfly swimming a 2:08.54 for 12th place overall.

Julia Wilkinson was the lone Canadian swimming in the morning finals session taking part in the women's 200 IM. Wilkinson again lowered her Canadian record in the semis posting a time of 2:12.03 to tie for 5th place in to tomorrow's final.

In just a few hours time the Men's 100 Freestyle and the 4x200 Freestyle relay will take place at the Water Cube.

After a great first two days of swimming in China there were no UBC Dolphins in action during the heats session on Day 3. The Canadian record books continued to take a beating with Stephanie Horner breaking the 200 free record while placing 17th overall in 1:58.35. Julia Wilkinson also broke another Canadian record in the 200 IM qualifying for the semi finals in 2:12.56 good for 13th spot.

Adam Sioui also broke the Canadian record in the mens 200 fly posting a time of 1:57.45 to finish in 25th place after the prelims.

Brent Hayden pulled out of the men's 200 freestyle semi finals to concentrate on the 4x100 freestyle relay and his upcoming 100 free later in the week, Hayden broke his Canadian record in the lead off of the relay posting a time of 47.56, one of the fastest times in the history of the sport. The team of Hayden, Joel Greenshields, Colin Russel and Rick Say finished 6th in a new Canadian record time of 3:12.26. This time would have been a world record prior to the Olympics.

Annamay Pierse finished 10th overall in the women's 100 breaststroke semi final finishing in 10th overall, narrowly missing the final by 0.04.

An amazing stat from the men's relay. Jason Lezak, USA, went in to the water behind Alain Bernard, FRA. Coming off the last wall Bernard had alost a full body length lead. Lezak had an incredible final 50 to touch first by 0.08 and post the fastest relay split in history in 46.06.

Brent Hayden led the way on the second day of competition breaking two individual Canadian records and helped Canada qualify their 4x100 freestyle relay also in a national record. Hayden qualified for the semi-finals in the 200 freestyle in 3rd position posting a time of 1:46.40 (old mark 1:46.85, 2005). Leading off the relay Hayden broke his 100 freestyle mark in 48.28 leading the team to a national record in 3:13.68 to qualify in seventh for the final.

Annamay Pierse qualified for the semi finals in the 100 breaststroke in 13th overall in a time of 1:08.25.

Savannah King posted a time of 4:11.49 to place 19th overall in the womens 400 freestyle.

In front of Royalty, World Leaders and thousands of fans Brian Johns raced the morning finals of the 400 IM. Johns, swimming out of lane 1, posted a time of 4:13.38 to finish 7th in the final. Brian's time from the evening heats ranks him 9th all time in the event. The event was won in an amazing World Record time of 4:03.84 by Michael Phelps, his first gold medal on his quest for 8 gold medals at this years Olympics.

Brian Johns broke the Canadian Record in the men's 400 IM dropping his best time by over five seconds. Johns posted a time of 4:11.41 to qualify for the final in 7th position. The old Canadian Record had stood since 2000 when Curtis Myden won the bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in 4:15.33. Keith Beavers swam a 4:12.75 and finished 9th overall just missing the final.

Tanya Hunks also posted a personal best time with a big time drop going 4:40.63 lower her BC Provincial and UBCD Club record by almost a full three seconds.

The Canadian record book continued to take a beating during the first session. Ryan Cochrane posted a time of 3:44.85 in the men's 400 freestyle to finish in 9th overall after the morning heats. The women's 4x100 freestyle relay also qualified for the final breaking the Canadian Record in a time of 3:38.82 (Julia Wilkinson, Erica Morningstar, Genevieve Samur, Audrey Lacroix).

Finals will be on CBC and NBC tonight begining at 7:00pm PST.