Gatineau Swimmer a Double Medallist

By Martin Cleary, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 27, 2009

Camille Bérubé was born 14 years ago with cancer.

Today, the Gatineau Phoenix Swim Club athlete is a double medallist at the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island.

A day after breaking her personal-best time by one second to win the bronze medal in the women’s 100-metre freestyle race for swimmers with a disability, Bérubé took silver in the 100-metre backstroke in dramatic style.

After clipping three seconds off her fastest time in the morning heats, she pared another three seconds off her best time in the final, which she completed in one minute 28.50 seconds.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Bérubé said in a telephone interview from Charlottetown. “I’m very happy. I didn’t expect this. I wanted to do finals, but I didn’t think I could win medals.”

Bérubé was born with a cancerous tumour on her spine. When it was removed, it affected some nerves and muscles in her legs. She wears leg braces and is classified as a walking paraplegic.

Meagan Michie of Ottawa won her third swimming medal of the Games when she took silver in the women’s 100-metre backstroke Special Olympic class. She was timed in 1:31.30.

“It was a really close finish,” Michie said. “I was actually fourth after the first 50 and at 75 metres, but I surprised a lot of people in the last 25 metres.”

Lyam Dias of Hawkesbury was fourth in the men’s 200-metre breaststroke in 2:15.22. He competes for Quebec. Iain Smith of Ottawa was sixth in the men’s 100-metre backstroke for swimmers with a disability in 1:35.83.

The undefeated Ontario men’s volleyball team has the day off today to rest for its semifinal against the winner of the Saskatchewan and Manitoba quarterfinal. Ontario earned the bye by defeating Quebec 25-17, 21-25, 25-20, 25-20, to complete the round robin at 5-0. Rex Fenton of Ottawa had 10 assists and one
dig.

Ontario finished the men’s soccer round robin at 1-1 after being upset 1-0 by P.E.I. on Wednesday.

Strong winds and waves as high as two feet postponed the final six morning preliminary heats in canoe-kayak as well as the 1,000-metre afternoon finals, which have been rescheduled for Friday.

“It got to the level that it was too dangerous to race,” said Joel Hazzan, an Ontario coach and former Rideau Canoe Club paddler.

Before the weather halted the completion of the preliminaries, two Ottawa and area athletes qualified for 1,000-metre finals. Jacob Sosna of Carleton Place and Rob Clarke of Mississauga, Ont., won their men’s K-2 1,000-metre heat with the fastest overall time of 4:20.577. Cheyanne Farquharson of Ottawa and
Courtney Stott of Pickering, Ont., were third in their women’s K-2 1,000-metre heat with the third-best time, 5:06.872.

Kaitlin Findlay of Kanata and Nina Doherty of Mississauga won’t race in a women’s C-2 1,000-metre preliminary as all crews will go directly to the final. Ben Tardioli of Ottawa and Jared Trafford of Carleton Place will be part of the Ontario crew racing in the men’s international C-4 1,000-metre final without the benefit of a qualifying race. Nathan Barton of Stittsville and Sosna will form half of the men’s K-4 1,000-metre boat for Ontario. Their preliminary
is scheduled for today, with the final on Friday.

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