The St. Albert Sailfish are gearing up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their swim meet next weekend.
The club is hosting its annual swim meet next weekend but this year, it will be an extra special event as the group is celebrating 50 years of swimming together as a club.
The St. Albert Sailfish club is the oldest continuous swim team in Alberta and coach Glenn Wilson said the weekend will feature appearances by many Sailfish alumni to celebrate the occasion.
“Making it our 50th anniversary swim it makes it already more attractive for people because it becomes more of a festive atmosphere instead of just a competition atmosphere,” Wilson said.
Alumni Scott Flowers, who still holds the records for 200m and 400m freestyle that he set in 1983, will be attending the event along with his two children, Emily and Mack, who are both now coaches for the local club. Mack and Emily swam with the Sailfish growing up and have returned to coach the team.
“The best coaches we have, which is all of them, all come from within the ranks of the Sailfish,” Wilson said.
St. Albert city Coun. Natalie Joly will also be attending the weekend celebration. Joly, who used to work at the Fountain Park Pool, will be the official opening starter for the swim meet.
More than 90 Sailfish swimmers are registered for the meet and Wilson is expecting more than 300 swimmers from across the region to attend.
Wilson said that the meet is always very well attended because the St. Albert pool is considered a “fast pool.”
“The pool does enable faster times because it’s deeper, it’s cooler and … swimmers say the pool has fast walls,” Wilson said.
The walls of the pool are tiled well and are not too slippery so swimmers are able to set personal best times while swimming in St. Albert.
Eleven teams from region B, including Hinton, Devon, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and North Edmonton, will be attending the races and the St. Albert club uses their home swim meet as a practice for the regional meet in August.
But because region B is the largest region in the province with the fastest growing clubs, the competition will be tough on the weekend.
“Because there are so many teams now that have progressed … it’s harder and harder and harder to win. We used to win by a couple hundred points, but now when we win a meet, it’s by 30,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that although club members always hope to win their own swim meet, their focus is more on personal bests and skill development.
“We have objectives for every swim meet and it is not about winning. Our objectives for swim meets are around a skill that has been learned that last week or a specific personal goal for each athlete,” Wilson said.
The 50th anniversary Sailfish swim meet, which is being held at the Fountain Park Pool, will run Friday, July 13, and Saturday, July 14.
