The annual St. Albert Sailfish swim meet is set to begin Friday evening at Fountain Park Recreation Centre, and will continue Saturday morning. The swim meet will host nearly 300 different swimmers from 11 different club across western Canada, some as young as four years old.
The Sailfish athletes are well prepared for the event, with strong performances so far this season as well as extra practice times starting in the summer.
“Our swimmers swim five nights a week, and are usually swimming at a meet on the weekends. In July, they actually swim three mornings as well. I get tired just from watching them, it’s pretty much a full-time job for everyone involved including the coaches,” said club president Chris Waples.
Because of the competitive nature of the club, expectations are high for the athletes to produce results, both as a team as well as individually.
“The goals the coaches set is to be at a minimum within 60 percent of their best time, but we’re always pushing them to break their own records,” Waples said.
The results of each race are all worth points, so although the races are individual, they are acquiring points for their team and at the end of the meet the team with the most points is crowned champion.
The St. Albert meet is always a popular event in the swimming circuit. The stands fill up as parents and supporters from across Western Canada come to support the athletes. Usually, the results favour the home team.
“Historically we’ve done very well at this meet. We’re a very strong club, this is our sixth meet this year and we’ve won all but one so far. We’ve had a lot of success so far. Our club has had a lot of turnover this year, we lost some of our more experienced swimmers, but a lot of the new kids are picking it up quick and are doing well,” said Waples.
The swim meet begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, with the long-distance events being held Friday evening, and the shorter races continuing on Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. Admission is free for all who wish to attend.
