Erica Morningstar of Calgary and Brent Hayden of Vancouver didn’t reach the podium on Sunday to conclude a three-stop World Cup tour but that won’t dampen what has been a highly successful start to their Olympic season. 

Both swimmers had stepped on thepodium in their previous five days of racing on the tour which started last weekend in Stockhom, continued mid-week in Moscow and ended here in Germany. 

On Sunday, Morningstar took sixth spot in the women’s 100-metre individual medal clocking 1:00.77 in a race won by Francesca Halsall of Britain in 58.73.

Morningstar ended the tour with five medals including four gold. She took the 200 IM in Canadian record time Saturday; won the 100 IM and 200 IM in Moscow and last weekend was second in the 200 IM and first in the 100 IM. 

Hayden meanwhile saw his hopes for a sixth World Cup medal dashed when he clocked the ninth fastest time in the 50 freestyle at 22.11 missing the cut for the final by a mere 0.01 seconds. He won gold Saturday in the 100 freestyle; gold in the 50 free and silver in the 100 freestyle in Moscow and silver in both freestyle sprints last weekend.

‘’After he tweaked his shoulder yesterday, Brent wasn’t going to take any risks today,’’ said Hayden’s coach Tom Johnson. ‘’Still this tour was a really good start for him. It was a great exercise to race some of the best swimmers in the worlds and help get his focus ready for the Olympic trials in March.’’ 

Canada’s other finalists Sunday were in the men’s 100 breaststroke with Paul Kornfeld and Mike Brown, both of Calgary placing seventh and eighth respectively.