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MONTREAL — The much ballyhooed Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit lived up to the hype in its Canadian debut on Sunday, producing a new record for men’s 400 medley relay at the CN Swimming Trials.
Canada’s team knocked nearly three full seconds off the previous Canadian record of three minutes, 37.94 seconds racing in the controversial super suits credited with helping rewrite swimming record books in recent weeks.
“You feel like a race car, it’s just unbelievable, it doesn’t compare to anything else,” said Joe Bartoch, who swam the butterfly portion of the relay.
Bartoch, of London, Ont., Joel Greenshields of Airdrie, Alta., Jake Tapp of Langley, B.C., and Mathieu Bois of Montreal were confident the record time would be good enough to qualify for the Games, although a final call will come in June.
The CN Swimming Trials Olympic selection meet wrapped up Sunday with 27 swimmers qualifying for the Olympics and ten Canadian records falling at the six-day event.
And 20 swimmers qualified for the Canadian Paralympic team, which held its qualifying events for the first time during the same meet.
Two other spots remaining for the 10-kilometre open water swim will be decided at a meet in Seville, Spain, next month. Coaches will also be named in the coming weeks.
But the LZR Racer was on everyone’s mind as Canada’s best male swimmers in the four legs, minus injured freestyler Brent Hayden, were fitted with the suits Sunday for the relays only.
The new record time of 3:34.99 was within six one-hundredths of a second of Australia’s time to win at the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
The controversial suit had been banned this week, but the rest of the Canadian team will be outfitted with the LZR Racer this week. In addition, Speedo Canada announced it had reached a $2.5-million, eight-year sponsorship agreement with Swimming Canada.

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