BELGRADE, Serbia – The Canadian women's 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay capped a great first day in the swimming competition Sunday with a bronze medal, Canada's first of the 2009 Summer Universiade, and the CIS champion University of Calgary Dinos were leading the way.

The Canadian team of Marie-Pier Ratelle of Quebec City, Breanna Hendriks of Cochrane, Alta., Katy Murdoch of Calgary, and Seanna Mitchell of Manotick, Ont. bettered its qualifying time by more than two seconds in the final to stop the clock in 3:43.09. The United States took the gold medal, with Japan capturing silver.

Murdoch, Hendriks, and Mitchell were all part of the history-making Dinos women's swimming team in 2008-09, capturing the school's first-ever CIS championship in record-setting fashion with the largest point total in championship history. The win ended 11 years of UBC dominance in CIS women's swimming.

It is the 89th swimming medal in Universiade history for Canada after a 10-medal performance at the 2007 Games in Bangkok, Thailand.



“That was awesome,” said Murdoch, the Canadian short-course record holder in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. “We went in there and wanted to win the first medal for Canada and we all did our part, from Marie-Pier leading us off right to the end.”

Ratelle, a three-time CIS All-Canadian with the Université Laval Rouge et Or, set a blistering pace for the field, giving Canada the lead after her 100-metre length. The trio of Dinos followed, with Murdoch nearly overtaking Ava Ohlgren of the United States after 300 metres. Mitchell swam the anchor for Canada, out-touching Russia's Svetlana Karpeeva for the bronze medal.

“It was a great experience, a great team and we got a lot of support,” said Mitchell, who was part of the Canadian 4 x 100 freestyle relay team that finished fourth in Bangkok. “We could definitely hear the crowd and our teammates cheering for us. We have a fantastic women's team, and everybody swam great today.”

“I don't think any of them have swam that fast in their lives, so that's very strong swimming,” said Dinos head coach Mike Blondal, who is Canada's head swimming coach at the Unviersiade. “It was a pretty satisfying day. We had a lot of best times, and winning the medal tonight just capped it off.”

Two Dinos also advanced through the semi-finals Sunday to advance to Monday night's finals where they will swim for medals. Murdoch posted the fifth-best semi-final time in the women's 200-metre backstroke, while her University of Calgary teammate Kelly Aspinall of Nanoose Bay, B.C. qualified seventh overall for the men's 50-metre butterfly final.

In the men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay, the Canadian team featuring three Olympians finished a disappointing fourth place, more than a full second back of third-place France. The team of Richard Hortness of Medicine Hat, Alta., Matt Rose of Lindsay, Ont., Rory Biskupski of West Vancouver, and Brian Johns of Richmond, B.C. finished in 3:17.89, with the United States winning gold and Italy taking silver.

Hortness and Johns were returning from the silver medal-winning Canadian team at the 2007 Universiade. Matt Rose rounded out the Olympic trio in the group, with two-time CIS All-Canadian Biskupski rounding out the team.

Rose made up considerable ground on the second leg of the race, but the Canadians were unable to match the speed of the medallists and Johns could not overcome a more than one-second deficit to France in the final 50 metres.

“It was a really fast relay, and the whole field was quicker than it has been in the past,” said Rose, who finished in the top 25 in two events at the 2004 Athens Olympics. “I thought we did a really good job stepping up and we swam relatively well, it's just that the other teams were faster tonight. There was nothing lacking, they just got to the wall before we did.”

Edmonton's Hanna Pierse of UBC finished sixth in the 400-metre individual medley final, with Melanie Dodds of Maple Ridge, B.C. and Texas A&M just behind her in seventh spot.

“We had great swims tonight with people coming through the heats and the semi-finals,” said Blondal, “and we have a good day coming up again tomorrow with Katy and Kelly in their finals. Those are great opportunities for us.”

Montreal's Jennifer Carroll of UQTR missed qualifying for the final in the 50-metre butterfly, finishing just four one-hundredths of a second out of eighth place. Jessika Craig of Picton, Ont. joined Murdoch in the 200-metre backstroke semi-final, where she finished 12th.

CANADIAN RESULTS – July 5

Final women's 400m individual medley
1. Ava Ohlgren, USA, 4:40.61
2. Lindsay De Paul, USA, 4:41.94
3. Svetlana Karpeeva, Russia, 4 :44.26
6. Hanna Pierse, Edmonton, 4:48.02
7. Melanie Dodds, Maple Ridge, B.C., 4:53.24

Final women's 4x100m freestyle relay
1. USA (Michelle King, Madison Kennedy, Ava Ohlgren, Morgan Scroggy), 3:41.81
2. Japan (Yayoi Matsumoto, Misaki Yamaguchi, Asami Kitagawa, Shiho Sakai), 3:42.60
3. Canada (Marie-Pier Ratelle, Quebec City, Que., Breanna Hendriks, Cochrane, Alta., Katy Murdoch, Calgary, Alta., Seanna Mitchell, Manotick, Ont.), 3:43.09

Final men's 4x100m freestyle relay
1. USA (William Copeland, Christopher Brady, Eric McGuinnes, Douglas Robison), 3:14.74, Universiade Record
2. Italy (Michele Santucci, Nicola Cassio, Vittorio Dinia, Andrea Rolla), 3:16.07
3. France (Antoine Galavtine, Sébastien Bodet, Kevin Trannoy, Boris Steimetz), 3:16.57
4. Canada (Richard Hortness, Medicine Hat, Alta., Matt Rose, Lindsay, Ont., Rory Biskupski, West Vancouver, B.C., Brian Johns, Richmond, B.C.), 3:17.89

Semi-finals women's 50m butterfly
9. Jennifer Carroll, Montreal, Que., 27.07, does not advance
16. Vanessa Charron, Quebec City, Que., 27.74, does not advance

Semi-finals women's 200m backstroke
5. Katy Murdoch, Calgary, Alta., 2:12.26, advances to final Monday
12. Jessika Craig, Picton, Ont., 2:14.11, does not advance

Semi-finals men's 50m butterfly
7. Kelly Aspinall, Nanoose Bay, B.C., 23.87, advances to final Monday

Heats men's 400m freestyle
17. Ray Betuzzi, Calgary, Alta., 3:55.82
20. Steven Bielby, Pointe-Claire, Que., 3:57.51

Heats women's 50m butterfly
7. Jennifer Carroll, Montreal, Que., 27.29, advanced to semi-final
15. Vanessa Charron, Quebec City, Que., 27.66, advanced to semi-final

Heats men's 100m backstroke
20. David Sharpe, Halifax, N.S., 56.58
28. Callum Ng, Calgary, Alta., 57.36

Heats women's 400m individual medley
6. Hanna Pierse, Edmonton, Alta., 4:50.49, advanced to final
8. Melanie Dodds, Maple Ridge, B.C., 4:51.57, advanced to final

Heats men's 100m breaststroke
18. Bryn Jones, London, Ont., 1:02.05
29. Warren Barnes, Pickering, Ont., 1:03.49

Heats women's 200m backstroke
4. Katy Murdoch, Calgary, Alta., 2:12.72, advanced to semi-final
8. Jessika Craig, Picton, Ont., 2:13.15, advanced to semi-final

Heats men's 50m butterfly
6. Kelly Aspinall, Nanoose Bay, B.C., 24.05, advanced to semi-final
35. Nicholas Murray, Matane, Que., 25.05

Heats women's 4x100m freestyle relay
3. Canada (Marie-Pier Ratelle, Quebec City, Que., Breanna Hendriks, Cochrane, Alta., Hayley Nell, London, Ont., Seanna Mitchell, Manotick, Ont.), 3:45.23, advanced to final

Heats men's 4x100m freestyle relay
4. Canada (Richard Hortness, Medicine Hat, Alta., Rory Biskupski, West Vancouver, B.C., Matthew Swanson, Newmarket, Ont., Brian Johns, Richmond, B.C.), 3:19.63, advanced to final

About the Summer Universiade

The Summer Universiade is an international multi-sport event that takes place every two years, and is second only to the Olympic Games in the number of participating athletes and countries. The Universiade is open to competitors between the ages of 17 and 28 in the year of the Games who are full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.

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