Richmond Rapids Swim Club capped a highly productive season with its largest medal haul ever at the National Age Group Championships in Quebec City.
The Rapids brought 12 swimmers back east to participate in the five-day long meet that featured nearly 900 competitors from across the country. Seven made it to the podium resulting in 16 individual medal performances. That left the Rapids sixth overall in the final medal standings and 12th in combined team scores
Amanda McCallum captured the first medal and national title with a win in the U12 200 backstroke on the first day of the meet — after narrowly missing the medals twice in 2014. She dropped over two seconds from her best time to leave the field behind in the final 50 meters, winning by two body lengths.
McCallum would go on to earn six more medal swims, for a total of two silvers and five golds. The silvers came in the 50 backstroke and 200 freestyle, coming back from deep in the pack in both to stamp her place on the podium.
The rest of her medal swims were dominant performances.
In addition to the 200 back, McCallum won the 100 back, 50 free, and the 200 and 400-meter individual medley convincingly — pulling away from the field in the last quarter of each race.
Her 200 and 400 IMs were hotly contested through the breaststroke, but her strong freestyle legs put her well ahead of the competition. She was also fifth in the 50 and 100-meter butterfly.
McCallum’s consistent podium swims ranked her first overall in her age group, earning her the High Point award for the meet.
John Chiam also found himself at the top of the podium, securing his first-ever national medal.
After finishing fourth in the 100 butterfly, Chiam struggled to regain his footing.
His next best opportunity came on the last day in the 50 fly. In one of the tightest fields of the meet, Chiam drove to a commanding lead at the 20-meter mark and held to the finish.
Jerry Liu got himself on the podium in the 200 IM with a monster finishing kick in the freestyle. Liu was behind four other swimmers after the breaststroke leg, but brought it home hard to earn a bronze.
The third night of the meet was the most productive for the Rapids.
There were five medal swims, as Wendy Yang, Brian Yu, Eric Tong, and Richard Rakchtis joined McCallum on the podium.
Yang swam to a bronze in the 50 freestyle, her first of the meet. She went on to win a second bronze in the 50 butterfly the following night.
Yang posted a personal best in the 50 free, and was just slightly over her 50 fly time from a few weeks prior. Her quality was best shown in her opening 30 meters, where her strength and power were on full display.
Tong and Yu were also on the top of the podium in the 50 freestyle.
In their first national title and medal swims, the two young men had commanding races in the middle of the pool, driving to gold medals. The two won in consecutive age group categories, putting a Rapid at the top of the podium two heats in a row.
Yu also swam to sixth place finishes in both the 100 free and 100 breast.
His backstroke leg in the boys 4x100 medley relay was instrumental in their podium attack. After dropping almost three seconds from his personal best, the significantly younger Rapids team (Yu, Rakchtis, Chiam, and Tong) pushed to fourth overall from the outside lane, improving on their entry time by eight seconds.
Tong’s 50 freestyle improved his own national record from Provincials by a tenth of a second.
His second Canadian record came in the 100 freestyle two days later. The record, which eluded him at provincials and in the 100 freestyle individual finals, came from his opening leg in the 4x100 free relay. The swim beat the previous mark, set five years prior, by a tenth.
Rakchtis was on the podium three times in breaststroke events, earning his first-ever national medals.
He won silver in the 100 and a pair of bronzes in the 50 and 200 metre distances.
In the 200, Rakchtis was a solid fifth at the last wall, but in one of his best finishes ever, he outsplit many in the field by 1-2 seconds in the final 50. Rakchtis posted a best time by over seven seconds.
His 50 and 100 breaststrokes were best times by a mile as well. Rakchtis had only just broken 1:10 at Provincials, but dropped a 1:07.62 for his silver.
Dini McIver, Serena Xue, Kevin Ye, Devon Mark, and Tony Zeng also competed for the Rapids at the meet.
Ye was just outside the medals in the breaststroke events, finishing fourth, fifth, and sixth in the 50, 100, and 200 respectively. Xue placed fifth in the 200 breaststroke as well.
The squad also netted 16 individual club records.
McIver broke an eight-year-old 50 backstroke record. Tong lowered three of his own freestyle records, and added the 50 breaststroke to the list. Yu was responsible for two in the sprint freestyles, while Ye broke two in the sprint breaststrokes.
Yang lowered her own record in the 50 free from Provincials. McCallum broke the remainder, resetting six of her own records.
The Rapids are taking some well-deserved time off before starting back up for the 2015-2016 season at the beginning of September.
Registration for new members begins Saturdsy at Watermania.
