Junior Pan Pacs

Nadine will be on her way home shortly after just over 2 weeks away from home for Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Guam. Where she competed against the top 18 and unders from Canada, USA, Mexico, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, PR of China, China, Mongolia and Guam.

She competed in the 400, 800, 1500 freestyles and 10km open water event. She had a great competition and learnt a lot from the experience. With this being her first international tour it was very exciting and positive for her.

Her first race was the 800 free and there were definitely a few jitters not to mention that it was her first long course race since Age Group Nationals last July. She had a strong consistant race finishing 5 seconds over her best time but then she took off from there. She swam on the girls 800 Free Relay B team and as anchor went a blistering 2:06, 4 seconds under her best time. The following day she built on that momentum with a great 400 free where she made the B final taking almost 4 seconds off of her personal best and then went even faster at night 4:24. 34. On the final day in the water she swam the 1500 taking off just over 10 seconds to finish in 8th place her top finish in the pool.

Finally on the last day came the open water. The event that qualified her to attend this competition and she performed admirally in her first ever 10 km race. She was unable to stay with the lead pack but lead the second group to finish in 6th place, a great performance.

‘’I was pleased that I finished the race and I finished strong,’’ said Williams, 15. ‘’I wasn’t struggling at the end.’’

A good sign as she looks to get more involved in open water events. The pool events also make her a front runner for a spot on the Alberta Canada Games team as the mid distance and distance freestyler. Trials for this take place at Westerns in February here in Edmonton and it March at Spring Nationals in Toronto. There she will also compete in the 5km pool championships where the top 2 finishers will go on to represent Canada at World Championships in Rome this summer.

Happy New Year!

We had a very strong Christmas camp for all that were able to attend all the workouts and have been building even more this week as we go through our final push before we start fine tuning into out season ending competitions. This is always a busy time for all people and for swimmers this is compounded even more. With High School exams and Junior High mid terms trying to suck away all of your energy you need to remember to make time for everything and budget accordingly.

Be Proactive and start to study now so that you are confident going into your exams and there is no need for the last minute craming. That type of studying may produce ok results but you will not remember much of it after your exam and this also is a big strain on you mentally and physically so you risk the chance of getting sick.

By staying on top of your studying now there should be no need to miss a workout. Maybe you choose not to stay for dryland so that you can get to bed earlier or you may decide to get out of morning workout at 7:00am so that you can do a quick review before that 9:00am exam. This is always much better than skipping a workout all together. A light swim can be a nice break from the stresses of school and a morning swim may just be the wake up you need for your mind to be firing on all cylinders. Not having to think about school even if it is just for 1.5 hours can go a long way to helping you succeed.

Scheduling in the things that are important for you: Family and friends, school, swimming will go a long way to making sure that you are successful in all aspects of your life. It will keep you healthy and confident so that you can enjoy every minute of it. Remember always put first things first and then you can find the time to be successful in way more that you could have imagined.