Na­tion­al swim­mer Nikoli Black­man won the men’s 50m freestyle B-fi­nal on the third night of the 2025 Bell Cana­di­an Swim­ming Tri­als at the Saanich Com­mon­wealth Place in British Co­lum­bia, Cana­da, on Mon­day.

Swim­ming from lane four, the 19-year-old Black­man, who at­tends the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ten­nessee, won the mar­quee event in 22.54 sec­onds, with Ali Sayed of Qatar sec­ond in 22.57 and New­found­land and Labrador’s Chris Weeks, 17, third in 22.78.

The oth­er fin­ish­ers in the B-fi­nal, which was open to non-Cana­di­an swim­mers as well, were Paul Dard­is (23.04), Justin Bak­er (23.07), six feet and nine inch­es’ Liam Weaver (23.07), Za­ckari­ah Boulaa­joul (23.15) and Raine AAr­den (23.63).

In the A-Fi­na, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da ‘Gators’ and Olympic sil­ver medal­list in the 100 but­ter­fly, Josh Lien­do, who has T&T parent­age, claimed the men’s 50 freestyle ti­tle with the on­ly sub-22 per­for­mance of the field, clock­ing 21.88.

The 22-year-old Lien­do, who holds the Cana­di­an record at 21.48, won the event by near­ly two-tenths over two-time Olympic bronze medal­list Ilya Kharun, who touched in 22.06, a life­time best but just shy of the 22.05 ‘A’ stan­dard.

Kharun, 20, had out-touched Lien­do in the 100m but­ter­fly the night be­fore, 50.37 to 50.46. Tokyo Olympian Rus­lan Gaziev, re­turn­ing af­ter an 18-month sus­pen­sion for where­abouts fail­ures, round­ed out the podi­um with a 22.23 for bronze, just off his 22.21 best time from the pre­lims.

Yuri Kisil was fourth in 22.50, fol­lowed by An­toine Sauve (22.82), Er­ic Ginzburg (22.82), Al­bert Bouley (22.88), and Luke Stew­art-Bein­der (23.00).

On Mon­day morn­ing in the pre­lim­i­nary heat, Black­man, who is us­ing the meet as part of his prepa­ra­tions for the up­com­ing World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships in Sin­ga­pore from Ju­ly 11 to Au­gust 3, raced to vic­to­ry in the sev­enth of nine heats in 22.80 sec­onds, the fifth fastest time over­all, but shy of the ‘A’ stan­dard qual­i­fi­ca­tion time for the World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onship.

Luke Stew­art-Bein­der was sec­ond in the heat in 23.00, the sev­enth-joint fastest time with Al­bert Bouley, with An­toine Sauve third in 23.02.

The oth­er fin­ish­ers in the heat were Fil­ip Senc-Samardz­ic (23.05), Paul Dard­is (23.09), Weaver (23.18), and Joel Blan­co (23.32).

How­ev­er, due to Black­man, 19, be­ing non-Cana­di­an, he was de­nied a spot in the A-fi­nal along­side Gaziev, who won heat eight in the top time of 22.21, just ahead of Kharun (22.31) and Lien­do (22.49), who won heat nine with Kisil, who was third in heat eight and the fourth fastest in 22.69.

Yes­ter­day, Black­man re­turned to ac­tion as the fourth-seed­ed swim­mer in the men’s 100m freestyle in 48.56 and was third in the eighth and fi­nal heat in 49.86 be­hind top qual­i­fi­er Gaziev (48.79) and Lien­do, who was sev­enth over­all in 49.70 to se­cure a spot in last night’s B-Fi­nal.

For the World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onship, Black­man has al­ready at­tained the men’s 200m ‘B’ stan­dard qual­i­fi­ca­tion time and was hop­ing to hit the 48.32 sec­onds qual­i­fi­ca­tion mark to join coun­try­man Dy­lan Carter as qual­i­fiers to Sin­ga­pore.

Carter has an A-stan­dard time for the 50m freestyle and 50m but­ter­fly events and a ‘B’ mark for the 100m freestyle as well as an ‘A’ stan­dard time.

The oth­er qual­i­fiers to the B-Fi­nal were Sayed (49.51), who was fourth in heat sev­en; Aiden Nor­man (50.33); Cole Pratt (50.35); Gib­son Black (50.40); Dard­is (50.44); Jake Grant (50.50); and Stew­art-Bein­der (50.50).