Canada's Dorris, Routliffe go 1-2 in butterfly event at Para swimming worlds
Bennett wins gold, Newkirk and Turbide add bronze as Canada's medal total reaches 15
Canada boosted its medal total at the Para swimming world championships with a flourish on Friday.
Danielle Dorris won the women's S7 50-metre butterfly event just ahead of fellow Canadian Tess Routliffe, while Nicholas Bennett dominated en route to top spot in the men's SM14 200 individual medley and Shelby Newkirk and Nicolas-Guy Turbide each scored bronze medals.
Dorris, Routliffe and Bennett now each have two gold medals and one silver at the meet in Manchester, England. Canada sits at 15 total medals through five days of action with eight gold, three silver and four bronze.
Dorris, 20, successfully defended her butterfly world title with a time of 33.98 seconds, breaking the championship record she set last year. The Moncton, N.B., native is also the reigning Paralympic champion and world-record holder in the event (32.99).
"Being able to do that I feel very happy," Dorris said. "I think my ending went well [in today's race]. I think I was able to speed up enough to aid the fact that my start was pretty long ... along with my underwaters are always pretty good in my eyes."
Routliffe, of Caledon, Ont., touched in a personal-best time of 35.14 seconds, while American Julia Gaffney was just behind in 36.86 for bronze.
"It was really good to have a teammate to race," said Routliffe. "We threw down the best possible race we could tonight and I'm really pleased with it."
Bennett, 19, set a Canadian record of 2:07.98 to win his gold medal nearly three full seconds ahead of silver medallist Rhys Darbey of England (2:10.95).
Ukraine's Dmytro Vanzenko earned bronze at 2:11.41.
Bennett, of Parksville, B.C., was the youngest Canadian at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 where he failed to reach a podium, but has quickly risen through the ranks.
On Friday, he threatened the world record of 2:07.50.
"That was just the goal, leave it all in the pool and try to get the world record or as close to is as possible. We did that. Every ounce of energy is just, like, out," Bennett said.
Newkirk, meanwhile, claimed her second medal of the meet after winning gold in the S6 100 backstroke.
The Saskatoon native clocked a time of 34.04 seconds Friday to take bronze. Ukraine's Anna Hontar smashed the world record to capture gold at 32.55 seconds, while China's Yuyan Jiang scored silver at 32.90 seconds, an Asian record.
Newkirk missed the final in the event at the Tokyo Paralympics and placed fourth at last year's worlds.
"It's nice to finally break into that podium and I'm looking forward to getting to continue it, especially next year leading up into Paris," Newkirk said.
Turbide's podium appearance is the third of his career at worlds and first in the bronze-medal position, in addition to a pair of Paralympic medals.
The 26-year-old earned his latest medal with a time of 23.88 seconds in the men's S13 50 freestyle, setting an Americas record. Ukraine's Oleksii Virchenko took gold at 23.47 seconds and Uzbekistan's Islam Azlanov snagged silver at 23.78.
"I couldn't be happier, really. Everything went as I thought it will so I can pat myself on the shoulder and say good job," he said.
Canada was seventh in the 4x100m mixed medley relay with a Canadian-record time of 4:42.32, swam by Katie Cosgriffe of Oakville, Ont., James Leroux of Repentigny, Que., Philippe Vachon of Blainville, Que., and Routliffe.
Newkirk and Arianna Hunsicker of Surrey, B.C., were leadoff and anchor in the preliminaries.
Live coverage of the Para swimming world championships continues through Sunday on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Team Canada
- Nicholas Bennett — Parksville, B.C.
- Katie Cosgriffe — Burlington, Ont.
- Danielle Dorris — Moncton, N.B.
- Sabrina Duchesne — Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Que.
- Alexander Elliot — Kitchener, Ont.
- Nikita Ens — Saskatoon
- Arianna Hunsicker — Surrey, B.C.
- James Leroux — Repentigny, Que.
- Angela Marina — Cambridge, Ont.
- Shelby Newkirk — Saskatoon
- Clémence Paré — Boucherville, Que.
- Aurélie Rivard — Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.
- Tess Routliffe — Caledon, Ont.
- Katarina Roxon — Kippens, N.L.
- Jessica Tinney — Scarborough, Ont.
- Abi Tripp — Kingston, Ont.
- Jordan Tucker — Guelph, Ont.
- Nicolas-Guy Turbide — Quebec City
- Philippe Vachon — Blainville, Que.
- Aly Van Wyck-Smart — Toronto
- Zach Zona — Simcoe, Ont.
