BC AA Champs Great Success for Rapids Swimmers

February 15, 2012

                For Richmond Rapids swimmers this weekend culminated 5 months’ worth of training and preparation.  The BC AA Championships were held at the Chilliwack Leisure Centre this past weekend.  Three hundred and sixty swimmers from all over the province attended the meet.  Competition was fast and furious with swimmers achieving new personal bests, higher standards and of course bragging rights on the podium. 

                Coach Alex Pettifer was extremely happy with the performances of her athletes.   She believes the hard work and the mental preparation of the athletes have paid off and that they are able to move on to higher level meets and tougher challenges in the pool.

                “It was great to see the swimmers achieve new results and master some of the concepts we’ve been working on in the pool,” says Pettifer.  With over 75% personal bests throughout the whole weekend the swimmers were much improved.

Swimmers over the weekend with 100% personal bests were:  Amanda McCallum (9), Nini Weng (11) and Artur Yushko (10).  New provincial qualifiers for the club were: Ada Zhang (13) and Sam Bhandal (11).  Both swimmers are eligible to attend the BC AAA Provincial Championships in Surrey at the beginning of March.

Finalists (top 8) for the Rapids were:
Kate Balen (14) 5^th 100/200 breaststroke
Sam Bhandal (11) gold 200 fly/400 free/400 IM, bronze 200 free, 4^th 200 back
Samantha Gosel (13) silver 200 IM, bronze 200 free/200 back, 5^th 100 back/800 free
Nicholas Huen (13) bronze 100 fly/200 back/400 IM, 7^th 100 free/200 breast/200 free
Thomas Huen (10) gold 100 free/200 free, bronze 100 back, 6^th 200 back, 8^th 50 free
Jessica Jones (13) bronze 100 breast, 5^th 200 breaststroke
Christopher Lam (13) silver 50 free, 5^th 200 back
Brian Leung (15) silver 1500 free
Amanda McCallum (9) 7^th 50 free
Joshua Quon (9) silver 100 fly
Melissa Quon (13) gold 200 fly, bronze 100 fly,4^th 400 IM
Alex Tsui (17) bronze 50 free/200 free, 5^th 100 free
Ni Weng (11) silver 50 free, bronze 200 free, 6^th 100 back
William Weng (14) silver 50 free, 8^th 100 free/200 breast
Delbert Yip (15) 7^th 200 breaststroke
Artur Yushko (10) 5^th 50 free/100 fly, 65^th 100 back/200 free
Ada Zhang (13) gold 400 IM, silver 100/200 breast, bronze 200 IM/100 back
Alex Zhang (15) silver 400 free/200 free, 5^th 200 back, 7^th 100 free
Selina Zhou (13) silver 800 free, 6^th 200 fly/100 fly, 7^th 50 free/200 free

Seven Rapids swimmers are in Winnipeg this weekend for the Speedo Western Canadian Championships.  This meet is for senior level swimmers and includes the fastest swimmers in all of Western Canada. 

BC AAA Provincial Championships run March 1-4 weekend and are in Surrey.  The Rapids will be bringing over 40 athletes to the meet in the hopes of keeping their top 5 provincial ranking.

For more information on the Richmond Rapids Swim Club click on www.richmondrapids.com or call 604-275-7946.  The club has learn to swim programs that run out of Minoru Pool in Richmond and competitive programs for swimmers of all ages out of Wa