The Richmond Rapids Swim Club had great showings at developmental meets over the past weekend.
Swimmers from the Rapids Swim School (RSS) participated in their first RSS Mini Meet, the 10 & under squad competed at their initial PASS meet and the 12 and unders were at the SFU/Gators LMR meet at Simon Fraser University.
The RRSS Mini Meet was for learn to swim participants. Children get a chance to race in short distance events for prizes and to show off their newly learned skills. The event attracted over 50 RRSS participants. Some great skills were shown and the atmosphere at the pool was charged with energy.
The PASS meet held at Watermania allowed some of the novice swimmers a chance to get in and strut their stuff.
Events were longer and swimmers were exposed to some of the other clubs in the region. The competition was furious as swimmers attempted to achieve specific time standards which allows them to compete at some of the bigger meet events.
The Rapids were in outstanding form at the SFU/Gators LMR meet. Competing for recognition and personal bests, the youngsters failed to disappoint.
"There were some amazing personal bests achieved this weekend. Ten to 15 seconds in an event is a huge drop even for a young swimmer. It was great to see we are building on the successes of last year," says Rapids head coach Robert Pettifer.
Two club records were broken, there were new championship qualifiers and a huge number of top three finishers.
Club records were established by Matthew Crawford (10) in the 50 backstroke and 100 butterfly. New AA championship qualifiers were Ethan Chan (10), Jeremy Fung (10), Adrian Hsing (11), Thomas Huen (10).
Medalists at the meet were Anthony Chan (10) 50 breaststroke, Matthew Crawford (10) gold 200 IM/100 free/100 fly/200 free, silver 100 breaststroke. Jeremy Fung (10) silver 200 IM/100 free/100 fly, bronze 100 breaststroke. Alisa Gagina (12) gold 50 breaststroke, silver 50 backstroke, bronze 100 IM. Run Qian Gong (8) gold 50 butterfly. Angela Gu (11) gold 50 back/50 breast, silver 400 free. Lionel Han (11) bronze 50 free. Capri Horstmann (11) silver 50 back. Adrian Hsing (11) gold 50 free, bronze 200 back/100 free/100 back.
Thomas Huen (10) gold 50 breast, silver 100 back. Chris Lam (13) silver 400 free, bronze 50 breast/100 free. Nathan Liminsang (11) gold 50 back, bronze 50 fly. Austen Orr (12) silver 50 breaststroke. Kevin Ouyang (14) gold 200 back/400 free, silver 100 back, bronze 200 freestyle. Eunice Park (10) silver 100 fly. Joshua Quon (9) gold 100 fly, silver 200 IM/100 free/100 breast/100 back/200 free.
Cindy Shu (9) gold 200 IM/100 free/100 breast/100 back/200 free. Dimitri Volchkov (9) gold 100 back/50 breast, silver 50 fly, bronze 200 IM/100 free/200 free. Ni Weng (10) silver 100 free. Derek Wu (10) bronze 400 free. Alice Ye (11) bronze 50 back/50 breaststroke.
At the end of the meet 11 swimmers had achieved 100 percent personal best times. Pettifer attributes these successes to an increased buyin-to-the-program and the great base of skills laid down in the previous season.
Rapids swimmers gear up for upcoming meets in Langley and Victoria and are looking forward to their own FastSwim competition at Watermania on December 2-4.
For more information on the Richmond Rapids Swim Club for competitive swimmers or the Rapids Swim School based out of Minoru Pool visit www.richmondrapids.com or call 604-275-7946.
