Day 2 finals

Another great night at the pool tonight!! The night started off with Luke in the 100 free, he went in 7th and came out 6th improving his time by almost a second! Then we had Finn and Peter in the 400 IM, Finn went in 10th and came out 8th...he broke the 5 minute mark for the first time too!! Peter came out with the silver medal with another best time of over 3 seconds. Will was next and also came out with the silver...another best time!! Then we finished the IM's off with Alec SMASHING Alex Baumann's 30 year old record to win the BIG BOY race!!! Next up was the 50 back, Heidi went in 4th and swam ANOTHER best time and won the GOLD. The cheering at the Island bench was fantastic and the performances in the pool were awe inspiring. The competition tank is incredibly fast and if the kids can get a lane they are almost guaranteed a great time.
Now we are looking forward to day 3...we aren't even half way done yet. Hopefully we can get some more kids into finals over the next 3 days.
That's all for now, good night from Montreal!

Day 2!! Here is some of our swimmers on their way to the pool, just waiting for the subway. I forgot to mention that the subway carries over 1 million people a day!! Yesterday Rebecca refused to touch the handrail on the escalator saying that it was disgusting, I then offered her $10 to put her tongue on it...weirdly, she refused! Caroline thought it was a great deal and wanted me to extend the offer to her!
These are the starts of the 100 free in the girls' pool. We have: Sarah(lane 7), Caroline(2) and Maddie(2).
The kids are on their way back to the pool for finals where we have 8 swims. Luke and Keegan in the 100 free, Alec, Finn, Will and Peter Brothers in the 400IM and Heidi and Peter B in the 50 back.!! GO ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's it for now, off to prep for dinner so we can watch all the racing and still feed the kids at a reasonable time tonight!

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of seeing the pool where our swimmers are competing, here is a couple of pictures of it from the stands. This was during finals tonight. The next picture is of Heidi with her bronze medal for the 100 fly, we let Cindy get in there too...no it is not photo shopped, that is really how beautiful the place is. Heidi also achieved her senior time with that swim. Okay, it might seem a little biased that I only have a picture of Heidi but Neil forgot to bring his cord to download his photos and he has all of the podium ones...there are a lot from there as we got 4 medals from our swims today. Luke is our first National champion after winning the 1500 free for 13 and under boys. Peter Brothers won the bronze medal in the 1500 free and the silver in the 200 back for 14 yr. boys. Heidi's bronze rounded out the night's haul. Peter Inches ended up 4th in the 200 back for 15 yr. boys and Cassandra grabbed 5th in the 50 breast for 13 yr. girls. Our finals swims were all best times by the kids. We had a great cheering squad with all the Island swimmers up at the fence during the races.
That's it for now.

Well the meet has finally started...Day 1!!! Both coaches are happy with howtheir groups swam their first session.
We have 4 kids in finals tonight: Heidi in the 100 fly, the Peters in the 200 back and Cassandra in the 50 breast. It will be a quick trip to the pool tonight with our races starting at 5:30 and finishing by 6:20. I have a quick little shout out to Ian, who in his first national level meet went a 2.5 second best time and ended up 17th in the 200 back!!!!
I will take some pictures tonight and try to post them.
Hopefully someone is reading this so I know I should keep doing this.

Today we got the kids to the pool for a swim and so they could have a look at the venue. Luckily, they got a couple of lanes to get themselves a good swim in. After having lunch they rested and then went for walk around and a little shopping, some of them caught a movie. Tonight we are having ribs for dinner and then they will have an early night since some of them have to be at the pool at 7am tomorrow.
The weather has been pretty ridiculous today...the morning was cloudy with very light spits of rain then this afternoon we had torrential rain with thunder and lightning. Betty-Ann and I got stuck in old Montreal for quite awhile waiting for it all to stop. Now it is beautiful and sunny so we are hoping that sticks around. The temperature is very nice too, maybe 20 degrees.
I hope we can still update once the meet starts but I can't guarantee anything!

On our way!

We are on our way to Montreal, the first leg of the trip is over and now we have a wait of 2.5 hours in Calgary...this is with a 48 minute delay! Most of the team is on this flight and we will meet up with the rest of the crew tonight.
Traveling today we have: Cassandra Purdon, Maddie Powell, Sarah Mabee-Hall, Heidi Bradley, Emily Choi, Egor Peshkov, Jessie Ogden, Ian Schoeddert, Lisa Su, Peter Inches, Noah Charlton, Finn Page and Luke Polson. We also have Neil, Cindy and Betty-Ann with us.
After arriving, the kids have all scattered to eat a nice breakfast of high quality foods...Subway, A&W and Timmy's.
Now all we need to do is find them all again before we load...

ISA at Western Canadian Championships

Hello from sunny Kamloops! We have 16 Island Swimming athletes competing this weekend; Heidi Bradley, Peter Brothers, Will Brothers, Guilherme Furtado, Rebecca Langlois, Sarah Mabee-Hall, Caroline Macdonald, Tanner Milne, Stefan Nasedkin, Jessie Ogden, Taylor Padington, Alec Page, Sean Penhale, Raquel Solmer, Chantal Walter and Keegan Zanatta.

We just finished our first day of the meet. Alec and Keegan led things off by finishing first and second in the 17 and over boys 800m freestyle with personal best times. Sean finished 5th overall and Stefan was 20th. Will also finished first in the 16 and under boys 800m freestyle with a personal best time. Younger brother, Peter finished 15th and was the top 14 year old in the 16 and under category.

Taylor swam to a huge personal best time in the girls 16 and over 1500m freestyle and finished fourth and Jessie swam to a 10th place finish in the girls 15 and under in the same event. Gui is going into B finals for 50 fly and 50 back, Alec is going into the B final for the 50 Breast and Heidi will swim in the A final for 50 back later on in the meet.

The 4 x 200m freestyle relay saw the girls finish 9th overall. The boys A team finished 3rd and the B team was 14th. At the end of day one, the team is sitting in second place behind the Cascades Swim Club from Calgary.

Day 2 tomorrow includes 100 back, 200 breast, 50 free and 400 IM along with the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. Go Island!

Click here for live results

Britain Tour - A Report from Coach Neil

After landing in London prior to New Years 2011, the Canadian Youth team quickly settled into a VERY spartan dorm in the Crystal Gardens area of South London. Without much ado, the group, including ISA athletes Alec Page and Keegan Zanatta, accompanied by Coach Neil Harvey, got down to work.

Training was vigorous almost from the first practice. This is a group of the best 18 and under swimmers in Canada, and they were in England to experience training in the land of the 2012 Olympics. The weather since arriving (18 days ago), has seen the sun only 3 times with rain half the time. This is no tourist tour.

The first week finished after a nice New Years trip downtown to see the fireworks. The fatigue was just setting in. After a long delayed bus trip way up to the north east coast near the border with Scotland we arrived in Sunderland. As the rain pelted out it's rhythmic welcome, we settled into a sprawling labyrinth of a hotel right on the coast of the north sea. Can you say quaint? Then back to business.

This time we were training with the England under 19 squad called England Talent. The groups mixed in as did the coaches and we shared ideas and practices for the rest of the week. As expected, the training was very competitive and the groups got along just fine. At the end of the week they hosted a dual meet to see what was what!! Well, after 3 sessions of back and forth, race after race, the lead switching on almost every swim...Canada came out the victors by a scant 4 points. It was down to the men's 200 fly which Mack Darragh from Oakville won in fine style. We put the finishing touch on the meet with a convincing win by the women's 4x100 medley relay. Of course we all forgot the score by the end of lunch :) We did manage a day trip to Newcastle for a look about and some shopping. Nice old town!

Monday saw another day of training in the modern Sunderland pool followed by a short 2 hour trip to the middle England city of Sheffield. The Ponds Forge pool here is the best pool in England, so they say. After the sauna that was Sunderland, we have certainly walked into its rival for air quality. Sweat equity indeed. However... we spent 4 more days of hard training (only 1 session with the very strong local squad) and are now into the meet called the Burns Open Invitational. Some of the best swimmers in Britain are here. Elizabeth Simmons (200 back 206+) and Rebecca Adlington (Beijing 800 meter gold medalist!!) and Liam Tancock (current world record holder 50 back) are all in attendance.

The Canadians are standing up and competing very well indeed. One more day of competition to go. We are looking forward to another great day of racing. Today is day 21 of this long and valuable trip. The swimmers are looking forwards to going home as you would expect (coaches too).
See you soon!

Neil

Burns Meet Live Results

Photos

Results from Sunderland

Keegan and Alec are doing great in Sunderland, England.

Swimming Canada Article

Results ~ Sunderland Triangular Meet (50m)

Hub International Barton Insurance signs on as a World Trials Gold Sponsor

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