The Richmond Rapids Swim Club had another weekend of racing, with the age group program heading to UBC for a sprint event, and the National Development squad traveling to Victoria for the Swim BC Senior Circuit meet.

UBC’s event, hosted by the Vancouver Pacific Swim Club, was entirely focused on short distance sprints, either 50 or 100 meters. All swimmers competed in nine events over the weekend, and were ranked according to aggregate times.

“There’s an element of fun to this meet,” said Head Age Group Coach Dennis Silva. “Not only are the kids swimming events that they usually wouldn’t, but the emphasis on racing is increased for all events. Our swimmers were motivated to finish at the top of the aggregate lists, and that encouraged them to increase their effort every single time they got on the blocks.”

That motivation resulted in a high number of top-10 finishers, which are listed below.

The National Development program attended the year’s first Senior Circuit meet, part of a system of meets designed to increase the regularity of competition between BC’s national-level swimmers.

The Rapids swimmers achieved a total of 26 new personal best times, and one new club record. David Ng held the club record for the 50 breaststroke for only a few heats, until Kevin Ye broke David’s newly-minted time. David’s swim was good enough to qualify him for Western Nationals.

“This was a great opportunity for early-season exposure to varsity level swimming,” said Head Coach Rob Pettifer. “The junior members of our National Development group had the opportunity to race against swimmers from the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser, and UBC.”

Nicolaas Dekker won three events - the 50 and 200-meter butterfly, and the 100 IM. Brandon de Costa came home with a win in the 50 backstroke.

The Rapids go back to training for several more weeks before their next outing, already looking forward to Fastswim Classic, a home meet with an upper level provincial draw.