Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Marissa Tiel

CHASING TIMES – From left, Rennes Lindsay, Hannah Kingscote and Cassis Lindsay were in Edmonton last weekend for a long-course swim meet. The trio was chasing qualifying standards for future races in the 50-metre pool.

Swim club records smashed at Alberta meet

The transition from a 25-metre pool to a 50-metre pool is not easy,

By Marissa Tiel on March 21, 2017

The transition from a 25-metre pool to a 50-metre pool is not easy, but a trio of Glacier Bear swimmers still managed to break a handful of club records and set personal bests.

Rennes Lindsay, Cassis Lindsay and Hannah Kingscote attended the Spring Championships at the Kinsmen Sports Centre in Edmonton last week, a three-day meet in a long-course, or Olympic-sized pool.

The best way to train for long-course meets is to swim in a long-course pool, says Glacier Bears head coach Malwina Bukszowana.

Whitehorse’s pool at the Canada Games Centre is 25 metres long, making the transition to racing in an Olympic-sized pool difficult. There are fewer walls to push off. Normally, in a 50-metre sprint race, athletes in a 25-metre pool get two opportunities to swim underwater and accelerate – off the start and the wall – but with a 50-metre pool, there’s just the start.

Kingscote, 14, is a strong underwater swimmer, gaining speed off each wall she touches.

She’s “amazing underwater,” said Bukszowana.

Even without the extra walls, Kingscote had a solid weekend, breaking two club backstroke records and posting three personal best times.

“It was definitely a challenge because I’m used to having those extra walls to help me out,” said Kingscote of the switch from short-course to long-course.

Kingscote started the meet off with the 50 backstroke. With a bigger pool, came some different equipment, like special ledges for the backstroke start, which allowed her to place her feet on the wall for the start without slipping.

Kingscote said she swam the event “just for fun,” but she had her best showing of the weekend, placing seventh in the final with a time of 32.69.

She also swam the 50 butterfly, and kept her time steady at 31.25 in the preliminary race and the final to finish ninth.

On Day 2, her nerves got the better of her as she didn’t advance to the finals with a time of 2:38.47.

On the final day of the meet, she had three races. She took a few seconds off her previous best time in the 50 free, but did not advance to the finals, finishing 30th with a time of 30.15.

In the 100 butterfly, she qualified for the final in 12th, with a time of 1:10.64, but faded in the final to finish 16th overall.

Changes to her backstroke technique over the past few seasons are beginning to show dividends as Kingscote broke a Glacier Bears club record in the 100 back and swam to a personal best in the event.

With coach Bukszowana, Kingscote has been focusing on making her arms windmill faster.

“My arms are kind of slow,” she said.

But the changes are beginning to pay off. She’s also been doing dryland training at Better Bodies “You could see it in the time,” she said.

Before the event, she said she was “really nervous” but thanks to an “amazing underwater and start” she had a headstart on the race.

“I just swam as fast as I could,” said Kingscote.

She touched the wall in the final in 1:13.60, a few seconds slower than her morning preliminary round swim, but good enough for 10th.

Kingscote is chasing national qualifying standards, but since she turns 15 at the end of April and the meet takes place after that, she has to make qualifying standards for 15-year-olds.

“It’s been frustrating,” she says.

Over spring break, Kingscote and seven other swimmers from the club are attending a training camp in Arizona at a long-course pool. This is in an effort to help them prepare for a long-course meet upon their return to Alberta.

Attending the camp, which will be coached by Bukszowana, are: Kingscote, Meghan Pennington, Emma Boyd, Taylor Harvey, Aidan Harvey, Alex Petriw, Luke Bakica and Thomas Bakica.

Cassis Lindsay set one club record during the Edmonton meet, posting a 32.06 in the 50 backstroke, which also qualified her to swim the event at Western Championships this season.

Her sister, Rennes, who has been focusing more on the medley events – where each stroke is swam in a single race – this season, posted two personal bests over the weekend. In the 200 medley, she was 11th in 2:36.53 and in the 400 medley, she was seventh in 5:25.93.

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