THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Thunderbolts Swim Club held their second meet of the year at the Canada Games Complex on the weekend.
Six teams from around Northwestern Ontario were in attendance, including two Thunder Bay teams, a Fort Frances team, an Atikokan team, a Dryden team and a Red Lake team.
Officials said swimmers had to compete in a long course, a 100-metre length from dive block to bulk-head and back to dive block.
Laura Dennis, the Thunderbolts’ official chair, was on the meet management committee and the meet manager. With their youngest swimmer in the competition being seven, she said ages ranged from seven to 24.
“The swimmers, you can tell there’s lots of energy. They’re very excited,” said Dennis.
“We’ve got swimmers who are trying to make qualifying times to go to provincial and national meets. The Ontario Age Groups is a provincial competition that takes place in March and so a lot of swimmers here today are trying to make their qualifying times for that as well as the nationals in April.”
While unable to provide any names until the statistics come in, she said they have quite a few top and really great athletes at the meet.
“We’ve had a lot of swimmers today make personal bests. We’ve had swimmers qualify, as I mentioned, for provincials. I’m not sure about nationals yet. We’ll have to take a look at all the times, but, yeah, it’s going really good, a really successful event today,” said Dennis.
She gave a special shoutout of appreciation to the many volunteers who came out to help with the swim meet, not only their club but also parents from the Narwhals and the regional teams.
Zaejan Gesta, a 12-year-old contender, was swimming for the Thunder Bay Thunderbolts. He said it felt nice to compete and cheer on his friends in other teams even though they’re not on the same team.
“You feel the adrenaline when it’s your race. You get nervous, but it’s also fun because it’s good practice when you come up to higher competitions,” said Gesta.
He added that it was very fun that his team hosted the meet and held the 4x100 medley race, which split the race between 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle.
Gesta said he was trying to get his best times, cheer on his teammates and have fun before their big meet in Toronto.
“This is a nice practice and good time to talk to our coaches and know what we have to improve on and I think that’s what my goal is today,” said Gesta.
Roman Ramirez, the head coach for the Thunderbolts swim team, said he couldn’t complain seeing swimmers having a really good attitude, giving their best and having a lot of best times.
“We have good swimmers, new swimmers and other swimmers. They are supporting each other,” said Ramirez.
He said they had four goals for the swimming meet: introducing beginner swimmers to the official meet, swimmers making provincial times, swimmers in the pre-race refining and correcting races for the provincial in three weeks and promoting competitive swimming in Thunder Bay and the region.
With qualified coaches promoting as many high-level swimmers as they want for every level, he said they have groups for every level and everyone is welcome to join at any time.
The Thunderbolts also hope to bring in a lot more teams for another meet to end the season at the Canada Games Complex in May.
“The next swimming is harder because it’s coming from the States. It’s probably coming from the central area of Toronto. It’s going to be a huge swimming meet,” said Ramirez.
“It’s going to be four days and finals and the level of swimming is going to be high, but again, it’s to promote the swimming meet in Thunder Bay and we are going to have the races for the beginner swimmers.”
The CDC sponsored the event with appetizers from Kelseys Original Roadhouse and coffee from Twin City Refreshments.
