Two Days, Two National Records For Wilkinson at Canadian Trials
Apr 03, 2008 | Women's Swimming and Diving
April 03, 2008
Texas A&M junior swimmer Julia Wilkinson (Stratford, Ont.) continued to light the pool on fire as she earned a second national record and title in as many days at the 2008 Canadian Olympic Trials on Thursday.
Wilkinson, who set the Canadian national record in the 100-meter backstroke twice on Wednesday, won the national title in the 200-meter freestyle in a national record time of 1:58.73. She had qualified in second position for the evening final with a time of 2:00.94 during morning preliminaries.
"My coach had a lot of confidence in me," Wilkinson said. "He said, ?'You have a 1:58 in you, just swim your own race. I wasn't even thinking about the outcome, I was just thinking about putting together a good race."
Wilkinson?™s new record of 1:58.73 eclipsed the former record of 1:59.38 set by Sophie Simard in 2005. Second place finisher Genevieve Saumur was also under the Canadian record as well at 1:59.22. Wilkinson?™s time is considerably faster than the 2004 Canadian Trials winning time of 2:01.68 swum by Brittany Reimer and makes her the first Canadian woman to ever win the event at the Canadian Trials in less than two minutes.
Wilkinson, as well as A&M teammate Melanie Dodds (Maple Ridge, B.C.), will swim the 200-meter individual medley on Friday, a race in which Wilkinson made the championship final at the 2007 World Championships.
