Written by SCOTT STANFIELD
Citizen staff
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Thursday, 11 September 2008 |
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The former mayor of Quesnel, who won eight gold medals at the masters provincial swimming championships this spring in Kamloops, has his eye on six individual golds during three days of competition this week at the Aquatic Centre, which would duplicate his winnings from last year’s Games in Nanaimo.
“I’m not sure if I can do it because I haven’t seen all the heats (for today),” said Wallace, who is competing for the northern zone, despite a recent move to Victoria. “I’ll be in the medals, I would think, in everything in swim. We’ve got a couple of world record holders here.”
The owner of Wallace Driving School now splits his time between Prince George and Victoria, where he cares for his 92-year-old father, Norman.
Before becoming an Islander, the 59-year-old Wallace trained with the Prince George Barracudas Swim Club’s masters program. He credits coach Jason Smith for helping with his stroke, which he developed years ago when he was a member of the University of Winnipeg swim team. Back then, Wallace had a chance to train with Canadian swimming legend Elaine Tanner, a former Prince George resident. More recently, he swam with current Olympian Rick Say.
Wallace holds a masters provincial record in the 200-metre butterfly and is part of the B.C. team that holds a Canadian record in the individual medley relay.
He is competing in three backstroke events, two butterflies and one freestyle race this week.
“This will be a good meet for me. At the Canadian championships this year, I didn’t win anything. I finished second in pretty well everything I swam, and that was because I turned 59 and some faster guys came up at 55,” said Wallace, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday.
Next year, he competes at
the bottom of the 60-year age bracket, which is ideally timed for the 2009 World Masters Games next fall in Australia.
“We as Canadians going down there and winning a bunch of things is going to be tough,” said Wallace, who won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the 2004 World Masters Games in Edmonton.
“It would be like the Australian hockey team winning a medal here, it ain’t going to happen. We’re going to have the best and most competitive swimmers in the world outside of the U.S. So if I get a medal or even finish in the top five or six, I’m going to be happy. But I’m going to be going for a medal in Australia, that’s what I’m training for. I’m training five days a week now.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 September 2008 )
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