Richmond FastSwim 2023

The Junior National and National Development groups took the trip out west to Richmond, BC, for the annual FastSwim competition. This was the first time at this meet and pool for the team, making it a great new experience. Throughout the weekend there were many differences from a typical Alberta meet – blocked warm-ups times, different blocks and backstroke ledges, and of course many new competitors. The group really took everything in stride and were very adaptable as new things came along.

The meet started Thursday with 1500 free and both 4x50 relays. Lauren, Brooke, Demetri, and Lachlan started the team off all going best times in the 1500, then a lot of very competitive relays followed them capped off by the 13-14 girls (Christine Zhou, Meghan Sutherland, Ranumi Eashwarage, and Mariia Melnyk) breaking the club record in the 200 medley relay. The remainder of the weekend was fast and furious for the team. Prelim sessions were long, but the swimmers managed themselves very well walking back and forth to the hotel and resting when they could. The finals sessions were comparatively quite short at about 2 hours (1 hour Sunday!), but the swimmers stepped up to the challenge of double races, in many cases swimming their best races on the last one of the day. Individually, there was one club record going to Meghan Sutherland in the 200 breast at 2:39.28, breaking a record set 19 years ago!

Fourteen swimmers achieved the awesome feat of going 100% best times in the meet: Jude Canji, Jeffery Cheung, Joe Dong, Ranumi Eashwarage, Andrew Fenning, Hilary Guo, Tjais Hirst, Lauren Meller, Avery Mitchell, Demetri Mylonas, Yianni Mylonas, Meghan Sutherland, Angelina Wang, and Stephanie Zhang.

Overall, it was a great meet for the team. Support for each other flowed through each session, capping off each evening at finals. The swimmers came together really well, and their success was definitely influenced by each other. Congratulations to all 36 swimmers!