Vancouver's Brent Hayden, seen in June, lowered the meet record in the men's 50-metre freestyle on Saturday at the Canada Cup short course swimming competition in Toronto. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

Vancouver's Brent Hayden lowered the meet record in the men's 50-metre freestyle on Saturday at the Canada Cup short course swimming competition in Toronto.

Hayden, who won six medals and broke Canadian records four times on the World Cup circuit earlier this month, clocked 21.84 seconds to beat his previous meet record of 21.91 set in 2006. Kyle Troskot of Lethbridge, Alta., was second in 22.42 and Rory Biskupski of Vancouver third in 22.68.

It's the first major national meet in which the swimmers had to wear swimsuits which conform to the new guidelines set out by FINA, the sport's world governing body, for Jan. 1, 2010. The same rule was implemented for national events by Swimming Canada on Sept. 1 to help the Canadians adapt to the new guidelines.

"It's definitely a new experience being on the blocks again without the full body suit," said Hayden. "But it didn't affect my race. My goal was to go under 22 seconds and I was pleased with the time."

In the men's 400 freestyle, Olympic and world championship medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria was the winner in 3:47.86 with Calgary's Chad Bobrosky edging out Victoria's Stefan Hirniak for the silver.

"This has been a pretty good weekend for me," said Cochrane.

"I was happy with how I put together my swim tonight. It was on par with last year, yet it felt easier, which was nice. My big focus is race strategy right now and trying to keep the laps as even as possible."

Other winners in men's competition were Vancouver's Kelly Aspinall in the 50 backstroke and 100 butterfly, Calgary's Paul Kornfeld in the 200 breaststroke and Vancouver's Brian Johns in the 200 individual medley.

Meanwhile, world championship medallist Annamay Pierse of Vancouver picked up where she left off last season with a victory in the women's 200-metre breaststroke. Pierse clocked 2:21.89 to lead the UBC Dolphins to a clean medal sweep. Martha McCabe was second in 2:22.94 and Haylee Johnson third in 2:25.82.

"It's very encouraging to see that I'm swimming the same times as last year," said Pierse, who broke the world short course record in the event earlier this year and won a silver medal at the world championships in Rome in July.

"To do that when I'm not in top condition and I'm not wearing the body suit shows it is the hard work that is getting me to swim fast."

Other winners in women's competition were Genevieve Saumur of Montreal in the 50 backstroke, Victoria Poon of Montreal in the 50 freestyle, Lindsay Delmar of Calgary in the 100 butterfly, Erica Morningstar of Calgary in the 200 individual medley and Alexa Komarnycky of Victoria in the 400 freestyle.