The Deep River Candu Swim Club hosted 120 swimmers at their
annual Blackfly meet May 24th & 25th. Teams from Ottawa, Carleton Place, Arnprior
and Petawawa joined in this fun developmental meet. For many of the swimmers it was their first
competitive experience, for others, the last competition of the year, and yet
for others a last chance to obtain a regional or provincial qualifying
time. This made for some very quick
races, sweet moments of achievement, and exhibitions of stamina in the grueling
800 and 1500m races. Each day finished
with exciting relays – a great way to build team spirit. Swim meets have a strong social component,
and the club brought all the swimmers and their supporters together for a
barbeque at the Yacht & Tennis Club, to enjoy a beautiful evening together
by the river and good food prepared by Deep River Masters swimmers.
There were many personal best swims. Arnprior Bluefish’s Cameron Shepherd (13)
improved his 200m individual medley time by 47s, and Megan Styles (15) took 38s
off her 200m freestyle to take first place in their races. Carleton Place Water Dragons’ Regan Rathwell
(10) improved her 800m freestyle by an incredible 107s and teammate Ava Massey
(11) improved her 400 freestyle by 42s, each finishing first in their
races. Deep River Candu’s Al Williams
(14) took 53s off his 800m freestyle and Laura Chin (12) improved her 100m freestyle
by 45s. Olivia Brown-Mckie (9) of
Petawawa was 10 seconds faster on her 50m freestyle. Ten year old swimmers from Swim Ottawa showed
great improvements in the 400m freestyle event with 4 swimmers improving their
times by more than 30 seconds: Riley Buckle, Grace Charness, Ellie Enticknap-Smith
and Alexandra Joab. Prashanti Joshi (17)
of SWOTT improved his 800m freestyle by 43s to take first place in his
event. Team scores included the relays
and saw Swim Ottawa in top spot followed by Carleton Place Water Dragons and
the Deep River Candus.
Thank you to all the volunteers that made this meet a
success!
