Condorelli wins butterfly for first national championship

USC Trojan still has three strong events left

Santo Condorelli stands on top of the podium with his gold medal from the 50m Butterfly on Wednesday night Toronto Observer/Alexis Espejo

Santo Condorelli became the new national champion in the Men’s 50 metre butterfly on day one of the 2015 Canadian Swim Trials Wednesday night.

The gold medalist finished in a time of 23.80, with Gamal Assaad took the silver (24.60), and Ben Berg won the bronze (24.73).

This event was not a qualifier for the Pan Am Games or the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, but Condorelli is swimming multiple events that are qualifiers this weekend.

“I have the 100 fly, 100 free, and the 50 free,” said Condorelli, in the mix zone at the Toronto Pan Am Games Sports Centre. “So hopefully I can double it up on the flys.”

During the year, Condorelli swims for the University of Southern California where he is a sophomore. This was his first Canadian Trials.

He was happy to be swimming in the brand new Pan Am pool, which has been characterized as fast.

“It’s amazing, super nice pool, really fast,” said Condorelli. “I was not really sure what to expect, but everybody was swimming really fast today.”

Silver medalist Gamal Assaad felt the effects of the fast pool heading into the final 15 metres. He swam the exact same time as in the morning preliminaries, but Berg made it a close fight for second and third.

“Last 15 metres I think he started pulling away … I had a bit of a bad touch and you can’t … it’s hard to judge it sometimes,” said Assaad. “It was a good swim though.”

Assaad, who was part for the Western University Mustangs team that finished fifth at the CIS Championships, could see Condorelli in the next lane for the entire race. The trick is to not be distracted by the other swimmers.

“Sometimes it can be very distracting,” said Assad. “I have trouble sometimes looking side to side but I try to avoid that as much as I can.”

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About this article

By: Leah Smith
Posted: Apr 1 2015 9:11 pm
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Filed under: 2015 Team Canada Trials Sports Swimming
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