MONTREAL – Hazem Issa, a native of Cairo, in Egypt, won a pair of gold medals as McGill finished first of six schools to surprise the field and capture the men's division in the second RSEQ Quebec Cup meet of the season, Saturday, at Memorial Pool, located inside the Sir Arthur Currie Gym.

McGill also took the women's meet title for a clean sweep (link to women's story).

On the men's side, the Redbirds finished atop the standings, winning only three of 10 races but collecting a plethora of middle-of-the-road points for an overall score of 461.5. Ottawa was second (446), followed by Laval (287.5), Montreal (154), Sherbrooke (82) and UQTR (9).

"The men won against all odds," said McGill head coach Peter Carpenter.  "We had the bulk of the (points earned in the) fourth to eighth-place finishes, which really won us the meet by as much as we did. Like Ottawa, which was pretty strong in the first Quebec Cup meet, we had multiple swimmers away at other competitions, but at the end of the day we had enough big swims to pull out a big win.
 
Issa qualified for nationals in the 50-metre freestyle (22.99 seconds) and swam the third leg of the winning 4x100 freestyle relay. The 20-year-old civil engineering sophomore finished fifth in the 50 breast (29.80). He also swam in the 4x100 medley relay but the group was disqualified on a false start.

Other members of the winning relay foursome included sophomore Malachy Belkhelladi of Montreal, senior Bruno Dehem-Lemelin of Kirkland, Que., and Pablo Collin, a junior from Marseille, in the south of France.

McGill's other leading scorer was Romain Vanmoen, a 20-year-old native of Menton, France, who made three trips to the podium and came away with gold, silver and bronze. The electrical engineering junior won the 400 indivual medley (4:28.58), was second in the 200 backstroke (2:03.58) and third in grueling 1500 freestyle (16:18.50).

"I like to think that we also benefited from a little home pool advantage," added Carpenter. "It was very busy and crowded on the pool deck but our athletes had the feel and confidence of competing at home."

Most schools at the meet were missing some of their high-end swimmers who were competing at a World Cup competition in Toronto.

Competing at that World Cup from the McGill men's roster was Erik Linseisen, Robin Domingo, Steve Frantskevich and Alejandro Giggey. Also away was Alex Younes, who is at the Saudi Games competing in the 200 freestyle and the 200 IM.

The third of five Quebec Cup meets is slated for Nov. 18 in Ottawa and will be the final one of the semester.

COMPLETE MEET RESULTS (PDF)

SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca