There’s absolutely no truth to the rumour the Barracudas will be bearing sharpened teeth in the pool at the Dental Moose Meet this weekend at Prince George Aquatic Centre.
But it’s a guarantee that the 42 local athletes representing the Prince George Barracuda Swim Club are motivated prove they are the fastest fish in the water at the three-day long course meet.
Starting this afternoon at 4 p.m., the meet features 153 swimmers from nine clubs, including swimmers from Prince George, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Smithers, Kitimat, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Terrace, Kitimat and Nanaimo.
This is the first long course (50 metre) meet for most of the attending swimmers and will serve as a qualifying event for the North/Interior summer divisional championships in Kelowna, June 27-29.
It’s also a chance for racers to achieve qualifying standards needed to compete in the summer provincial championships in Vancouver, July 17-20. Barracudas Katherine Bauman, 12, and Gavin Hall, 14, have already qualified in some events and will be trying to make the grade in other race distances and disciplines at the provincial meet this summer at UBC pool.
Among the Barracudas to watch this weekend are Emily Belshaw, Zoe Amar, Claire Milne and Tim James, who are tuning up for a run at the divisional meet later in June and the Kamloops Invitational, June 13-15.
“Claire’s goal at the beginning of the season before we had any swim meets was just to qualify for (winter) divisionals and in Prince Rupert in October she ended up qualifying for four of them and by the time we went to divisional in February she was qualified for seven events,” said Barracudas coach Jason Smith.
“They’re all doing well. None of them have swam long course since last years by rights they’re all going to swim best times (this weekend) and they’re looking forward to it.”
Smith said unlike their counterparts in the Lower Mainland and Victoria, northern BC swimmers have to travel and stay overnight to races, which limits racing experience.
“Because of where we live, we don’t have the opportunity to go to a swim meet every weekend, like you would if you lived in Vancouver,” he said. “You can go to meet a half an hour away or 45 minutes away and go back to house every night.”
Racing continues tonight until 8:30 p.m. and resumes Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m.
The meet is sponsored by local dentists, including Michelle and Richard Wilczek, Tessa von den Steinen, Suzanne Rozon, Sheila Duke, Francine Lo, Robert Elliott, Diane Kjorven, Jose Lopez, Nav Mann, Kerim Ozcan, Kris Pastro and Mira Perkovic.
