The Richmond Rapids are only days away from Short Course Provincial Championships in Kamloops, BC. A team of 35 swimmers will compete in what is, for many, the short course season’s finale. In preparation for this meet, the Rapids raced two major mid-season meets: their home hosted Fastswim Classic, and the Thunderbolt Junior International Meet in Oregon.

The majority of the age group program stayed home for Fastswim for three days of heats and finals racing, with over 450 swimmers in the competition. In the midst of that, the Rapids came out with 163 finals swims over the weekend.

“I was proud to see our swimmers racing even harder - being more aggressive in the beginning of races, and continuing to come back strong,” said Head Age Group Coach Dennis Silva.

“They are learning to adapt their races in finals and not repeat the same mistakes,” said Coach Alex Pettifer.

The coaches hope to continue to develop this approach in their athletes. The idea for provincials will be to adapt new strategies at night, or approach the original ones with more wisdom.

Coach Drew McClure believes it’s important for his athletes to understand the development of their races, and figure out appropriate responses to surprise or variable elements.

“Our racing strategy doesn’t change much. The idea is to make a basic-but-sound approach more sophisticated throughout the season, so the swimmers are more resilient to different racing scenarios.”

Meanwhile, in Oregon, seven of the Rapids’ National Development athletes were at the Thunderbolt Junior International, which provided a higher level of competition than normally seen at a provincial-level invitational. The Rapids were racing high-end American and German athletes, as well as some of the best age group talent from all across Canada.

In the progress of the meet, the Rapids broke 15 club records.

Kevin Ye replaced all three 13-14 breaststroke records, one of which bested a record in the Open category. Serena Xue updated three of her own (50 & 100 breast, 400 IM), also beating the mark in the age category above her, a feat also completed by Cathy Ye in the 100 and 200 butterfly. Brandon de Costa updated his own Open 50 back record, as Nic Dekker took down the Open 200 back and 50 fly.

The men also set three Open relay records: the 4x100 and 4x200 Free, and the 4x100 Medley.

Amongst stiff international competition, the Rapids came out with 24 finals swims. Of those swims, Nic Dekker pulled a bronze in the 100 fly. Head Coach Rob Pettifer was satisfied with the results he was seeing.

“I believe our swimmers made a statement at the meet by making multiple A and B finals every day of competition,” said Pettifer. “I’m excited to see what happens for the team at Provincials and Western Canadian Championships in February.”

The Rapids head to Kamloops this week for Provincials, which runs January 31^st to February 3^rd. Live results for all 600 swimmers will be available at swimbc.ca.