Tyler Mrak broke his PB twice in the same day.
TORONTO — Tyler Mrak set a new Canadian Paralympic record in the 100 metre breastroke on Wednesday night to increase his chances of a Rio appearance this September.
He was the only SB13 classification swimmer in the race, but that did not stop him from beating his personal best time.
The Canadian came into the night with the hope of improving his earlier effort.
“This morning, I had a decent swim, 1:17,” Mrak said. “Not really what I was looking for in the morning, but at night I looked at my video recording of the swim and decided what was wrong.
“We fixed stuff for tonight (and took) two seconds off the morning swim going 1:15.1 and pretty good.”
Mrak’s previous personal best was 1:19.04 at the SFU Clan Cup International meet last November. Knocking four seconds off of a personal best from five months earlier is a feat in itself – dropping two seconds in a matter of hours is impressive.
Team Canada’s roster for September at the Summer Paralympic Games in Rio will not be made until Sunday, and although Mrak broke a Canadian record, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to qualifying.
The swimmer still has higher goals for himself in terms of time before he will feel completely prepared for the Games.
“I was going for top eight, which is 1:44.00,” he said. “But you can’t have everything.”
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