(Photo credit: François Laplante, Freestyle Photography)

BELGRADE, Serbia - Team Canada added a pair of swimming medals Friday at the 25th Summer Universiade to bring its tally to 13 podiums with two days of competition remaining, three fewer than at the 2007 FISU Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

Summer Universiade website: www.universiade-belgrade2009.org
Team Canada website: www.universitysport.ca/belgrade

In a fitting end to the career of one of its senior members, the Canadian men's 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay put in an inspired performance to capture the bronze medal, joining silver medallist Kevyn Peterson on the podium on the penultimate day of the swimming competition in Belgrade.

After Salmon Arm, B.C.'s Peterson claimed silver in the women's 200-metre freestyle event earlier in the evening, the quartet of Calgary's Ray Betuzzi, Brian Johns of Richmond, B.C., Keith Beavers of Orangeville, Ont., and rookie Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont., had just enough to out-touch the Russians for the bronze medal in the evening's finale.

Following the race, Beavers hinted that he may be hanging up the Speedo after representing Canada at two Olympic Games (2008, 2004) and holding the Canadian records in both the 200-metre backstroke and the 200-metre individual medley.

"I said to these guys before the race that this is the last one, this is probably my last race as a Canadian team member and it was really special to swim with these guys and get a medal," said the 26-year-old graduate student at the University of Waterloo.

If it was indeed the final race of Beavers' career, he ended on the podium thanks to one of the up-and-comers in Canadian swimming.

Beavers swam the third leg of the race and had Canada in second spot, a fraction of a second behind race leader Japan. He turned it over to Swanston, who turned 18 in March and had completed his final in the 200-metre backstroke just minutes earlier. The American anchor swimmer overtook Swanston in the first length to move into the silver medal position, with the hard-charging Russians also gunning for him.

"I was going in a little tired, but I didn't want to disappoint these guys after a great start," said the 2008 Canadian junior swimmer of the year, who will be a freshman at Stanford University this fall. "I saw the Russian coming up beside me, so I just gave everything I had on the last 50 just to out-touch him at the wall."

The lead over Russia decreased with every stroke, but Swanston managed to hang on to win the bronze by just nine hundredths in 7:16.45.

"It was really hard to judge the field coming in here, and we had no idea how the other countries were going to stack up," said Bill Humby, the University of Alberta head coach who is responsible for Team Canada's relays in Belgrade. "We had veterans and rookies, and the plan was always to be the best team in the second 100. The smartest team usually wins, and all our guys thundered home in the last 50."

Almost lost in the dramatic race for the bronze medal was an impressive finish for gold by Japan, which broke the USA's Universiade record time by more than two seconds en route to victory in 7:11.54, while Americans grabbed silver.

Swanston finished sixth first final of the night, the 200 backstroke, with a time of 2:00.42.

Earlier Friday, the University of Calgary's Kevyn Peterson looked to be on her way to winning Canada's first gold medal of the Summer Universiade in the 200-metre freestyle but instead settled for silver after being tracked down in the final metres.

Peterson, a three-time CIS All-Canadian, was leading the race at all three splits, but Slovenia's Sara Isakovic closed the gap in the final 20 metres and just beat the Canadian out at the wall by eight hundredths, winning gold in a time of 1:58.59.

"It felt a lot better than I had expected it to," said Peterson, who also won a silver medal with the Canadian women's 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay on Wednesday. "I was pretty nervous, but that usually works in my favour in races. I was really shocked to see at a couple of turns that I was ahead of the pack, and the whole thing happened in slow motion.

Breanna Hendriks, Peterson's teammate with the CIS champion Dinos, also swam the 200 free and finished eighth.

The Canadians will look to increase their medal total on Saturday's final day of the swimming competition, which will conclude with the women's and men's 4 x 100-metre medley relays.

In other Canadian action at the pool on Friday, Calgary's Hanna Kubas finished fifth in the women's 50-metre backstroke final in 28.72, while Allison Long, also of Calgary, and Matt Rose of Lindsay, Ont. qualified for the finals in their respective semi-finals for the women's 50-metre breaststroke and the men's 50-metre freestyle. Both will shoot for the podium Saturday night.

In athletics, Canada was kept off the podium after tallying seven medals at the stadium the previous two nights.

Rachel Lavallée of Peterborough, Ont., the first of six Canadians to compete in a final, took eighth place in the women's 20-kilometre race walk crossing the finish line in 1:37.22.

Gabriella Duclos-Lasnier of Sarnia, Ont., followed up with a fifth-place finish in the women's pole vault, after she cleared 4.30 metres.

Kimberly Hyacinthe of Terrebonne, Que., and Amonn Nelson of Calgary were sixth and eighth in the women's 200m, respectively, with times of 23.66 and 23.99 seconds.

On the men's side, also on 200 metres, Sam Effah of Calgary was fifth in 20.83, while Gavin Smellie of Etobicoke, Ont., was sixth in 20.84.

In diving, Emma Friesen of Vancouver and Lacey Truelove of London, Ont., tallied 240.30 points to finish fifth in the six-team women's 3-metre springboard synchronized final. Mexico (303.00) won gold, China (276.48) took silver and the United States (273.00) were third.

In archery, after receiving a bye in the round of 16, the trio of Nathan Cameron of Sherwood Park, Alta., Jason Létourneau of St-Francois-de-la-Riviere-du-Sud, Que., and Simon Rousseau of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., fell 22-21 to the United States in the quarterfinals of the men's compound team competition.

In rhythmic gymnastics, the individual all-around competition was completed Friday with the ball and ribbon routines. Demetra Mantcheva of Vancouver ended up in 30th position with 84.800 points, while Lauren Adolph, also of Vancouver, was 33rd with a total of 83.500.

In tennis, Mikhail Lew of North York, Ont., defeated Elie Rousset of France 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 to reach the consolation final of the men's singles tournament. He will face John Peers of Australia on Saturday.

Canada also wrapped up the Belgrade Games in women's soccer, men's soccer and women's basketball on Friday, with men's volleyball playing its next to last match.

In women's soccer, the red and white (3-3) defeated China (2-4) 1-0 (5-4 in penalty kicks) to finish in seventh place.

In men's soccer, the Canadians (2-4) dropped a 3-2 decision to Uruguay (3-2-1) to take 12th position, two years after getting their best result in Universiade history, a fourth-place finish.

In women's basketball, the Canucks (2-5) beat Mozambique (0-7) for the second time this week, this time 83-65, to finish 15th.

In men's volleyball, Canada's spikers, who tied their best result in history in 2007 with a silver medal, will face host Serbia for fifth place Saturday thanks to a four-set victory over Turkey (21-25, 30-28, 25-21, 29-27). The Turks had defeated the red and white 3-1 in the 2007 final.

UBC's left side Steve Gotch of Okotoks, Alta., paced Canada with 20 kills, while reigning CIS male athlete of the year Joel Schmuland of Calgary, who wrapped up his varsity career at the University of Alberta in 2008-09, chipped in with 17 kills.

About the Summer Universiade

The Summer Universiade is an international multi-sport event that takes place every two years, and is second only to the Olympic Games in the number of participating athletes and countries. The Universiade is open to competitors between the ages of 17 and 28 in the year of the Games who are full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.

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