In his second of four events at the 2020 Paralympics, Alec Elliot placed fifth in the 100-metre butterfly S10 final with a time of 58.44.
In the morning heats, the Kitchener, Ont. native set a new personal best with a time of 58.59, before lowering it in the finals. That mark is the fastest 100-metre fly time for a Canadian at a Paralympics.
Elliot placed fourth at the event in Rio 2016 and won a bronze in the same event at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London.
In the finals, the 25-year-old was sitting in seventh at the 50-metre turn but turned it on in the final stretch to propel himself into a fifth-place finish.
“It was a good race. Pretty much the same as this morning, just a little bit faster,” he said. “I definitely went out faster, came back a little bit slower. But I gave it my best.”
Ukraine’s Maksym Krypak captured the gold after posting a world record time of 54.15, while Stefano Raimondi of Italy (55.04) and Col Pearse of Australia (57.66) took home the silver and bronze.
Elliot competed in six events in Rio, and after missing the podium by 0.78 seconds Tuesday, has the opportunity to compete in his most accomplished event Wednesday.
“I have a big 400 free which is my best event tomorrow morning. Hoping to qualify for the final and have a good final tomorrow night.”
Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada’s associate director of high performance and national para swimming coach, had encouraging words to say about Alec and the rest of Canada’s swimmers.
“Today we saw the execution of peak performance by so many members of our team and, as icing on the cake, our three finalists, Alec, Sabrina (Duchesne) and Nicholas (Bennett), all swam faster in their final than they did to qualify.”
The 2014 Ontario Male Para-athlete of the Year, Elliot will also compete in the 200-metre medley SM10 on Friday.