Victoria’s Hedlin ready to make an early splash
In baseball terms, Eric Hedlin of Victoria is the lead-off batter for the Canadian swim team at the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships that run through July 30 in Budapest.
Hedlin’s 5K open-water speciality is the first swim event of the 2017 worlds on Saturday. Which is fine by him. “I don’t like waiting. I like getting it done. I’m happy to be first in the water for Canada and I’m confident,” said the 2013 FINA world championship 5K silver medallist.
Hedlin is among three of the Canadian team’s open-water swimmers who train together under Ron Jacks at Saanich Commonwealth Place. Three-time Olympian Stephanie Horner contests the women’s 10K open-water race Sunday in Budapest and 2012 London Olympics bronzemedallist Richard Weinberger the men’s 10K on Tuesday.
Hedlin and Weinberger are University of Victoria computer science students and Horner graduated from UVic’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business with a bachelor of commerce degree, specializing in service management and entrepreneurship. All three have come through the UVic/Pacific Coast Swimming club.
“We’ve got a really good group and we really work well together. We push each other during training and motivate each other to be better all the time,” said Hedlin.
“Ron [Jacks] knows us best and it’s great he can be in Budapest with us.”
With the retirement of twotime Olympic-medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, Hedlin this year became the first new Canadian 1,500-metre freestyle champion in over a decade. You don’t have to drag this guy into a pool or lake.
“My love for the sport motivates me,” said Hedlin, who has his long-term aim set on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and a switch to the 10K open-water event.
Meanwhile, pool swimming runs July 23-30 in Budapest with three Island swimmers on the Canadian team — 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Hilary Caldwell of Victoria in the women’s 100- and 200-metre backstrokes, Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria in the men’s 400-metre freestyle and 4x200 freestyle relay and breakout 18-year-old Claremont Secondary student and Campbell River product Mackenzie Padington in the women’s 400- and 800-metre freestyles.
The six Islanders are part of the overall Canadian swim team in Budapest consisting of 32 athletes, six open water, and 26 in the pool. Sixteen of them are Olympians, including Horner and medallists Weinberger and Caldwell, and nine are rookies, including Padington.
The team was selected during the Canadian trials held in April at Saanich Commonwealth Place.
“This is my third world championships and there is nothing unexpected that is going to get to me,” said Caldwell, who won bronze in the 200-backstroke at the 2013 FINA world championships, before doing the same last year in the Rio Olympics.
Diving and water polo are also taking place in the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships in Budapest.