Young swimmer eliminates the crowd
After swimming best times in eight events in two days at the Prince George Barracudas Medical Northern Sprint Meet, 10-year-old Chloe Vertue was showing no signs of fatigue in the elimination relay Sunday morning.
The fun event at the end of the meet was limited only to the 10-and-under athletes and it drew the attention of packs of swimmers, coaches and parents who crowded in a tight ring around the Aquatic Centre pool deck to cheer on the youngest swimmers and Vertue, a thirdyear Barracuda, was having the time of her life.
She and seven other racers lined up in the start blocks in the 25-metre pool at the Aquatic Centre and each heat race resulted in the slowest two racers being eliminated. It started with the freestyle and the reward for winning was the right to chose which of the swim strokes would be used in the subsequent race.
Vertue won the freestyle, finished second to clubmate Masha Wood in the second race (breaststroke), won the third leg (freestyle) and picked the backstroke for her head-tohead showdown with Wood.
It turned out a wise choice. Vertue surfaced off the underwater start about a metre ahead of Wood and held that lead the rest of the way to stop the clock in 17.58 seconds, about a second quicker than her friend and Barracudas training partner, who clocked 18:42.
“That was really fun, I wasn’t so nervous,” said Vertue. “It was close, it was only one second. I didn’t really know where Masha was, I was just focusing on my own (strokes).”
Wood knew it was anybody’s race in the backstroke. There usually isn’t much separating the two whenever they swim that stroke.
“I was kind of like pumped up for that race,” said Wood. “I wasn’t really nervous. It was pretty close.”
The sprint meet kicked off the short-course racing season and Wood added two more provincial qualifying times (200m freestyle and 400m free) and now is faster than the provincial standard for her age group in eight events.
The Tier 1 age group provincial championships will be held in Penticton, March 8-11.