Ken Demchuk International Invitational 2025 Highlights

Ken Demchuk International Invitational 2025 Highlights

Alessa Darby and Kate Smith participated as part of Team Ontario at the Ken Demchuk International Invitational meet held at the Markham Pan Am Centre, November 28-30. Alessa and Kate achieved the qualifying standards for this high-level para competition that featured many of the best para swimmers from across the country. It included multiple Paralympics and World Championships medallists. There were 91 swimmers representing 51 Clubs/provincial teams participating in the long course format at the competition. Here are some highlights from the meet.

On the first day of competition, Alessa and Kate were both in action. After preliminary racing where they qualified for finals, Kate swam to a second place result in the 200M freestyle S3/S4/S14 race and Alessa took third place in the S6/S7 400M freestyle final. In the 100M backstroke finals, Kate touched the wall in second place and Alessa in third in the S13/S14 and S6/S8 races, respectively. 

The second day of racing had Alessa and Kate both swimming in the 100M freestyle. Alessa sped to a 3rd place finish in the S6 classification race while Kate placed 5th in the S9/S13/S14 classification final. Kate also swam in the 100m butterfly where she placed 3rd in the final. 

Both swimmers participated on relay teams. Kate’s team placed 1st in the 4x100m freestyle relay and Alessa’s team was 2nd in the 4x100m medley relay.

On day 3, in the preliminary SM6 classification 200M IM race, Alessa Darby broke her own provincial record in a time of 4:04.25. Her new record time was 21 seconds better than the previous record. In the finals, Alessa broke the record again with a time of 4:01.82 on her way to claiming the gold medal. Kate also swam the 200M IM, placing 4th overall in the SM9/SM13/SM14 classification final. Alessa was back racing in the S6/S9 50M freestyle final where she finished in 4th place. The weekend of racing finished up with a 4x100m medley relay. Kate was part of the Ontario team that finished in 1st place.

Congratulations Alessa and Kate on your achievements at Ken Demchuk 2025.

Thank you to our Club sponsors for their continued support. They are:

Platinum Sponsors:  Rockwater Wealth Management, Career Marketing Center

Gold Sponsors: Georgian BMW 

Bronze Sponsors: Theta TTS, Watt's Trophies and Engraving, Brandy's Cove Yachting Center

Go Trojans!