Richmond Rapids got their final taste of competition before the holidays by heading to Vancouver Island last weekend to compete at the Christmas Cracker Swim Meet.
The competition featured over 500 athletes and offered more than the usual assortment of medals and ribbons.
Providing a holiday theme, some impressive prizes were up for grabs including underwater digital cameras, Ipods, speaker docking systems and gift cards.
Prizes were awarded for having a time that ended in specific digits, winning heats and overall event winners. The meet even went so far as to offer meet record breakers special prizes.
Despite coming off a long swim meet the previous weekend, the club was geared up and ready to go. The Rapids' own locally hosted meet was a huge success and swimmers were excited to build upon the momentum the had achieved.
Twenty Rapids swimmers attended the meet and, at the end, plenty of prizes were won, podium finishes were had and some new swimmers were able to qualify some national level meets.
Club records were set by Cathy Ye (13) in the 100 and 200 butterfly; Kevin Ye (12) 200 breaststroke; Michael Jakac-Sinclair (14) in the 100 free; Hau-Li Fan (14) in the 1500 freestyle and by Brandon De Costa (15) in the 100, 400 and 800 freestyle.
The new qualifier for the Western Canadian Championships was Paula Gosse (15) who achieved the standard in the 100 breaststroke.
Finalists (top 16) for the Rapids were: Arvin Chua (12) bronze 200 fly, 4th 200 free. Brandon De Costa (15) gold 100 free/50 back/100 back, bronze 800 free/50 fly, 4th 400 IM/100 fly, 8th 400 free. Hau-Li Fan (14) gold 1500 free, silver 200 fly, 5th 400 free/200 IM, 10th 400 IM. Paula Gosse (15) 10th 100 breaststroke, 14th 200 breast, 15th 100 fly. Michael Jakac-Sinclair (14) gold 50/100 fly, silver 50/100 free, 5th 200 free, 8th 400 free. Patrick Kell (14) 8th 100 breaststroke, 9th 800 free. Tiffany Orr (16) 7th 50 fly, 9th 100 breast/50 free, 10th 50 back, 11th 400 IM, 13th 200 IM, 14th 200 fly. Serena Xue (13) gold 200 breast, silver 100 breaststroke. Cathy Ye (14) silver 200 fly, bronze 100 fly. Kevin Ye (12) gold 100 breast/100 free/100 fly/50 free/200 breaststroke. Mike Zhang (13) 4th 100/200 backstroke. Kevin Zheng (15) 5th 50 backstroke, 11th 50/100 breast, 13th 100 back, 14th 200 breast, 15th 100/200 fly.
Throughout the course of the meet's history the fastest times are recorded as meet records. Michael Jakac-Sinclair set meet records in the 50 fly and 100 butterfly for 13-and-14-year-old boys.
