Local swimmers continue to make waves beyond Manitoba as competitive opportunities outside the province give athletes valuable experience against stronger programs and deeper fields. One Central Plains Sea Lions competitor, Carson Pehura, recently tested his progress at a major western meet, where strong finishes and technical improvements signalled growing potential at higher levels of competition.<\/p>\n
Sea Lions coach Rob Pehura described how the trip showed both individual growth and the advantages of racing outside the province, particularly against clubs his swimmers do not normally face during the season.<\/p>\n
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Pehura says the Edmonton Open, held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, allowed qualified swimmers of varying ages to compete in the same divisions, creating a challenging and motivating environment for developing athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was at the January 30 to February 2. We went out to Edmonton; it\u2019s called the Edmonton Open, and that meet is an open meet where you just have to qualify, and then you swim open, so it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re 10 or 25 as long as you hit the standard. Carson swam seven races while he was there to make it worthwhile, but he was really focusing on his butterfly races, and he was able to make the top four in both those races. At that meet they have a series of finals, so they have a top four, then they have a top ten, another top ten, and then they have a special final for kids fifteen and under because usually the higher spots are held by the older kids and this gives those younger swimmers an opportunity to do heats and a final event,\u201d Pehura explains.<\/p>\n
Broader competition exposure<\/p>\n
The coach notes that events like this introduce swimmers to strong programs from across Western Canada, which often compete within their own regional circuits rather than travelling east.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the different thing with these top four is that they\u2019re actually racing for money; it\u2019s not a lot, maybe a couple hundred bucks a race, but it motivates them to make those races, and then he\u2019s swimming against kids he doesn\u2019t normally swim against. These are kids from all over Western Canada, from British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and they\u2019re from pretty big programs that have hundreds of swimmers, so it\u2019s nice to be able to compete with those kids and be competitive with them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Technique changes paying off<\/p>\n
Pehura adds that one athlete\u2019s recent adjustments to his butterfly stroke began producing results almost immediately, even though the new technique had only been practiced for about a month before competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the first time he actually competed with his new style. He\u2019d only been working on it for about a month, and it takes a couple of months to really get the rhythm down, so he\u2019s swimming this weekend and we\u2019ll see how that goes. Then he was third in his fifty fly, he swam the best time there and he was really happy about that, and he\u2019s about point three eight away from making Canadian trials in Montreal in early July,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Carson Pehura – PortageOnline\/supplied photo<\/p>\n
Pehura says qualifying for trials is a key goal because the national level meet would provide exposure to elite swimmers and potentially reshape the athlete\u2019s season schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of his focus. He wants to make that meet, and then he can call his year done a little bit earlier because if he does go to Canadian trials, then he won\u2019t go to Mansask because they overlap. It\u2019ll be one or the other, and he really wants to make that one because that would be his experience at a national level swimming against Olympians and national record holders, which would be a good experience for him,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n
Busy stretch ahead<\/p>\n
The Sea Lions remain in competition mode with a Grand Prix meet in Winnipeg followed by the ManSask championships in March, as well as a developmental meet in Selkirk for younger swimmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the Grand Prix this weekend and then have Mansask in March, and then there\u2019s a meet that\u2019s going to be, I think, the week before Mansask in Selkirk, and that\u2019s more for developmental swimmers thirteen and under. Some of the kids might go to that, but it won\u2019t be a lot of my group; it\u2019ll be some of the younger groups,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
Pehura says the steady stream of meets has made for a demanding but encouraging stretch, with swimmers continuing to build confidence through each competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local swimmers continue to make waves beyond Manitoba as competitive opportunities outside the province give athletes valuable experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-498413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}