BELGRADE, Serbia - Team Canada finally found its way to the top of the podium on the next to last day of the 25th Summer Universiade courtesy of swimmer Kevyn Peterson of Salmon Arm, B.C., who prevailed in the women's 400-metre freestyle on Saturday night to capture her third medal of the Games.

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

Peterson's win marked the sole podium for Canada on the 12th day of competition - and the last one at the pool - at the biennial FISU Games, bringing the overall tally of the red and white delegation to 14 medals including one gold, seven silver and six bronze. The Canucks, who will compete in three athletics finals on Sunday to wrap up the Belgrade Universiade, are still within striking distance of the total of 16 medals they won in 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Peterson reached the top step of the podium against long odds. Despite winning her morning qualification heat, she finished seventh in the aggregate standings and qualified for the final by a fingernail. As a result, she was assigned lane one for the final.

Despite the outside lane, Peterson shot out at the start to take the lead at the 50-metre mark and never looked back, knocking more than eight seconds off her qualifying time to finish in 4:10.01, beating out a hard-charging Kristen Heiss of the United States by 1.29 seconds.

"It's a big shock, I'm kind of overwhelmed," said the 21-year-old from the University of Calgary. "I had no idea this was coming tonight after my morning swim, but it's nice to be able to come out with a gutter ball in lane one and do something like this.

"After the first 150 metres I realized that I was ahead of everyone else," she went on. "I got a little freaked out and thought that I might have to back off a little, but thankfully I was able to stay with it as long as I could and get to the wall first."

"What a swim," said Mike Blondal, Peterson's head coach with the reigning CIS champion Dinos and the Canadian head coach in Belgrade. "She rolled a gutter ball after a pretty crappy morning for everyone in the rain and the cold, but she came out tonight like she had been shot out of a cannon and she didn't fade at all. She swam a serious, world-class time."

On her third trip to the podium after relay silver in the 4 x 200-metre freestyle and her own 200 free silver Friday, Peterson finally got to see the Maple Leaf raised on the middle flag pole.

"It was so much better to see it fly higher than everyone else's, and this was a long time coming," she said. "We had a great meet as a team, and it feels great to be the one at the top, bringing it home."

Peterson's gold was the only medal in six final swims for the Canadians as the SRC Tasmajdan outdoor pool bid farewell to the Universiade competition.

In the men's 50-metre freestyle, Matt Rose of Lindsay, Ont., also drew lane one and put together a great effort but finished fourth in 22.29 seconds, just one tenth out of a two-way tie for the silver medal between Boris Steimetz of France and Sergey Fesikov of Russia. Italy's Andrea Rolla took gold in the 'splash-and-dash' in a time of 22.16.

The women's 4 x 100-metre medley relay team of Calgary's Katy Murdoch, Kayla Voytechek of Lethbridge, Alta., Paméla Filiatrault-Veilleux of St-Nicolas, Que., and Marie-Pier Ratelle of Quebec City got off to a great start and led the first 150 metres of the race before being overtaken by the eventual winners from the United States. Italy and Russia also passed Team Canada before the 250-metre mark, and the Canadians touched the wall in fourth place with a time of 4:04.40.

In the other relay of the night, the Canadian team of Rose, Bryn Jones of London, Ont., Richmond, B.C.'s Brian Johns and Richard Hortness of Medicine Hat, Alta., was sixth to touch the wall, but the squad was disqualified after one of the transitions between swimmers was ruled premature. The Canadians were not alone, however, as both the United States, the apparent silver medallists, and the British were also disqualified. Japan won the race with a new Universiade record time of 3:32.80, with Italy taking silver and France grabbing bronze.

In other Canadian finals on Saturday, Allison Long of Calgary finished eighth in the women's 50-metre breaststroke, while Steven Bielby of Pointe-Claire, Que., was eighth in the men's 400m individual medley.

In addition to the women's swimming relay, Canada had two more near misses on Saturday with fourth-place finishes in women's water polo and athletics.

In women's water polo, the Canadians dropped a heartbreaking 10-8 decision to Russia in the bronze-medal match of the first-ever Universiade tournament.

Down 7-2 at the half, Canada scored the first four goals after the break to get back to within one but couldn't complete the comeback.

"In the first half it's almost like we played a man down," said Canadian head coach Gyula Toth. "We couldn't do anything, and when we made mistakes, Russia always put them in our goal.

"We played much better in the second half. The girls were fighting and did a good job, but we made a couple of crucial mistakes that cost us."

Team captain Stéphanie Valin of Pointe-Claire, Que., paced the red and white attack with a hat-trick, Saara Majuri of Coquitlam, B.C., scored twice, while Kerry Kaukinen of North Vancouver, Jenna Crook of Regina and Athina Vazreos, also from Coquitlam, added singles.

At the track, Alex Genest of Lac-aux-Sables, Que., recorded a personal best of 8:27.53 in the men's 3000m steeplechase, crossing the finish line just over a second after bronze medallist Steffen Uliczka of Germany (8:26.18). Ion Luchianov of Macedonia won gold in 8:25.79, while Halil Akkas of Turkey took silver in 8:25.80.

"We're ecstatic. That's a fantastic performance by Alex. He's really, really happy," said Canada's athletics team official Ingrid Ruys-George

Pole vaulter Jason Wurster of Stevensville, Ont., was also hoping for a medal on Saturday. He ended up sixth in the final with a jump of 5.40 metres, 20 centimetres less than Russian gold medallist Alexander Gripich.

The Canadians were competing in only one other event on the next to last day of athletics, Sam Effah of Calgary, Gavin Smellie of Etobicoke, Ont., Oluseyi Smith of Ottawa and Daniel Harper of Brampton, Ont., qualifying the men's 4x100m relay for Sunday's final with a heat time of 40.27 seconds.

Julia Howard, in the women's 1,500 metres, and the women's 4x400m relay will also be in action at Red Star Stadium on the final day of the Universiade.

The Canadian men's volleyball and men's basketball teams also concluded their FISU Games Saturday.

Canada's spikers lost in straight sets to Serbia (25-18, 25-21, 25-22) to finish in sixth place with an overall record of five wins and three defeats. Steve Gotch of Okotoks, Alta., and Thomas Jarmoc of Calgary amassed eight kills apiece.

Despite the setback, the Canucks still registered their third best FISU result in history, after silver-medal finishes in 2007 in Bangkok and in 1983 in Edmonton.

Russia, which overcame a two-sets-to-none deficit on Thursday to shatter Canada's medal hopes in the quarterfinal round, captured gold. The Canadians were the only team to take sets from the Russians the entire tournament.

The red and white cagers (4-2), bronze medallists in 2007, defeated Finland 88-63 in the duel for ninth-place. Ross Bekkering of Taber, Alta., led the way with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Josh Whyte of Calgary tallied 14 points.

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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