Montreal’s Marianne Rhéaume won her 5,000-metre open water races on Monday to complete the 2015 Canadian Age Group Championships with three gold medals.
Rhéaume, one of six 14-year-olds to test herself at the long distance, completed the course at Lac-Beauport in one hour seven minutes 13 seconds. That gave the Montreal native another distance victory, as she also won the 14-year-old girls 800-m and 1,500-m freestyle golds during the indoor portion of the meet. Rhéaume’s gold was one of two Monday for her CAMO Natation club, as Dounia Hage won the 13-year-old girls 2,500-m freestyle in 36:09.
Quebec swimmers won four of the five women’s open-water races. Mia Desjarlais of Club de National Neptune won the 15-year-old event in 1:08:00. Daphne Demers of Club Natation Dollard-des-Ormeaux topped the 16-year-olds in 1:07:11, holding off silver medallist Elisha Walker of the Norfolk Hammerheads by 14 seconds.
Like Rhéaume, Alexander Katelnikoff also captured his third gold of the meet. The Cascade Swim Club representative traversed the course in 1:04.32 for a narrow two-second victory in the 14-year-old boys race over Raben Dommann of Chena Swimming Club. The Calgary native’s first two victories were in 200-m and 400-m freestyle.
British Columbia was also well-represented on the podium. Kelowna AquaJets’ Josh Zakala won the 17- and 18-year-old boys race by some 2 1/2 minutes, posting a time of 1:00.33 to edge silver medallist Kevin McDonough (1:03:18) from Pacific Swimming Club. Kamloops Swimming Club’s Ethan Phillips won the 16-year-old event in 1:00:57, giving him a second gold to go with an earlier win in 200-m backstroke.
Moncton, N.B.’s Brooklyn Douthwright won the 12-year-old girls 2,500-m race in 37:10, giving her three golds and three bronzes from the meet.
Many of the athletes who competed at the Age Group will move on to Pointe-Claire, Que., to test themselves at the Canadian Swimming Championships, which take place from Thursday until Sunday.
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