WINDSOR –  A new name has been given to a well-established training hub.

Swimming Canada’s Para-swimming Centre de Haute Performance – Québec unveiled its new title on Saturday. Formerly known as the Para-swimming Intensive Training Program – Quebec, the Montreal-based Centre is the result of a partnership between six organizations to create an elite training environment for Canadian swimmers.

The Centre has undergone more than its fair share of changes in recent months – eight of the nine athletes are in their first year with the program.

“I think the biggest challenge is trying to forge a good, meaningful, personal relationship within a very short period of time,” said head coach Mike Thompson, “it has been a slow process. You can’t just be thrown into the water with somebody that you don’t know all that well and expect that you’re going to trust everything they say.

“I think that has really been the challenge – the transition for those guys. I don’t really think it has been a challenge for me.”

The athletes seem to be managing these challenges well. On the second day of the 2017 Speedo Can Am Para-swimming Championships, eighteen-year-old Tess Routliffe landed a victory in the SB7 100-m breaststroke, following her 400-m freestyle win from Friday night.

“We had taken out [the 400-m freestyle] last year,” said the Caledon native, “and now we’ve got it back. It has been going really well.”

Thompson emphasized the importance of boosting Routliffe’s confidence early on in the season, aiming to have her swim within 2-3% of her best times at the Can Am Championships.

“She had a really tough start to the season,” he said. “She had to move to a different province, to a place where she didn’t necessarily fluently speak the language, and to a completely different training responsibility.

“Every day we have her doing something – we’ve planned out almost every minute, every day… For her, the goal is to post some times that will give her some confidence so she can return to training happy.”

As a silver medallist from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Routliffe will be an automatic qualifier for the Mexico City 2017 World Para Swimming Championships. That being said, some fast racing along the way will not lower her morale on the pool deck.

“There was a little bit less stress from me because I was just racing myself,” she said. “I wasn’t racing for any times or time standards and so I was really able to just push myself.”

Following the Can Am Championships, Routliffe is looking forward to taking a much-needed, much-deserved break.

“I need one!” she laughed. “Then, [I’ll be] getting ready to race again and have the feeling of being back in Rio, but this time being in Mexico… that feeling I love so much.”

DAY 2 RESULTS

Full results: https://results.swimming.ca/2017_Can_Ams/index.html#

Gold Medallists:

WOMEN 50-M FREESTYLE

S1: Breanna Sprenger, RYD

S3: H. Aceves Perez, MEX

S4: N. Miranda Herrera, MEX

S5: Valerie Drapeau, NN

S6: V. Lopez Gomez, JAL

S7: Shelby Newkirk, LASER

S8: Morgan Bird, CASC

S9: Michelle A. Konkoly, UN-NTSC

S10: Aurélie Rivard, ANM

S11: Letticia R. Martinez, USAR – New Americas Record

S12: Aspen E. Shelton, FAST

S13: Gia N. Pergolini, GOLD

S14: Angela Marina, BRANT

MEN 50-M FREESTYLE

S4: G. Sanchez Martinez, MEX

S5: Danial Murphy, TCSC

S6: Zachary Shattuck

S7: Jean-Michel Lavallière, NN

S8: Philippe Vachon, MEGO

S9: David H. Gelfand, WYW

S10: Tye J. Dutcher, USARS

S11: Matthew Cabraja, COBRA

S12: Tucker A. Dupree, NTSC

S13: Nicolas-Guy Turbide, CNQ

S14: Connor Bissett, OSC

WOMEN 100-M BREASTSTROKE

SB5: Valerie Drapeau, NN – New Canadian Record (Prelims)

SB6: Sophia E. Herzog, USAR

SB7: Tess Routliffe, TORP

SB8: Katarina Roxon, AASC

SB9: Sarah Girard, NN

SB11: Letticia R. Martinez, USAR

SB13: Madeleine Babcock, BATS

SB14: Justine Morrier, CNHR – New Canadian Record (Prelims)

MEN 100-M BREASTSTROKE

SB6: Evan R. Austin, USAR

SB7: Alexander Sharpe, NCSA

SB8: David H. Gelfand, WYW

SB9: James Leroux, NN

SB11: Matthew Cabraja, COBRA

SB13: Tyler Mrak, KCS – New Canadian Record (Prelims)

SB14: Gordie Michie, STJJ

WOMEN 50-M BREASTSTROKE

SB3: N. Miranda Merrera, MEX

SB5: Haley S. Bernabaum, USAR

SB6: Krystal L. Shaw, FS

SB8: Sabrina Duchesne, UL

SB14: Valerie Gareau, CNHR

MEN 50-M BREASTSTROKE

SB2: J. Castorena Velez, MEX

SB3: Jonathan Dieleman, RAPID

SB6: Liam F. Smith, LFS

SB9: Patrick Waters, KAJ

WOMEN 200-M BUTTERFLY

S8: L. Lopez Valdes, JAL

S9: Elise Morley, PSCB

MEN 200-M BUTTERFLY

S9: Nicolas Plamondon, CNQ

WOMEN 100-M BACKSTROKE

S1: Breanna Sprenger, RYD

S5: Oceanne Bolduc, UL

S6: V. Trejo Delgadillo, MEX

S7: Shelby Newkirk, LASER – New Canadian & Americas Record

S8: P. Ruvalcaba Nunez, JAL

S9: Alyssa Crook, MLA

S10: Ariann Hunsicker, SKSC

S11: Amber Thomas, NRST

S12: Aspen E. Shelton, FAST

S13: Gia N. Pergolini, GOLD

S14: Angela Marina, BRANT

MEN 100-M BACKSTROKE

S5: Nicholas Lapoint, TYEE

S7: Caleb R. Cripe, NASA

S8: Philippe Vachon, MEGO – New Canadian Record

S9: David H. Gelfand, WYW

S10: Alexander Elliot, ROW

S11: Matthew Cabraja, COBRA

S12: Tucker S. Dupree, NTSC

S13: Nicolas-Guy Turbide, CNQ

S14: Tyson MacDonald, WRMS – New Canadian Record

MIXED 4X50-M FREESTYLE

20 Points: Canada (McLean, Dieleman, Drapeau, MacLellan)

WOMEN 4X100-M FREESTYLE

34 Points: Canada (Roxon, Dorris, Duchesne, Manning)

MEN 4X100-M FREESTYLE

34 Points: USA (Lahey, Austin, Pruett, Sewell)

MIXED 4X100-M FREESTYLE

56 Points: Canada (Marina, Morrier, Rousselle, Michie)