The idea of visiting Montreal in the heat of summer holds huge appeal for Tommy Brown.
It’s a hot and humid time of year but Brown doesn’t mind. If he gets there, he’ll be sticking close to the swimming pool, sipping plenty of drinks to keep cool.
But it’s not a leisurely holiday Brown has in mind; better to call it a working vacation. The 16-year-old Prince George Barracudas Swim Club racer has taken up residence in the swim lanes at the Prince George Aquatic Centre, showing up for practice no fewer than nine times per week just so he can race the country’s fastest fish at the Canadian junior national swimming championships, Aug. 3-7.
Brown is close to the junior national qualifying time in the 200-metre butterfly event and he’s closing in on the times he needs in the 200- and 400 m freestyle and the 400m individual medley, with an outside chance in the 200 IM. Unless he’s qualified in at least three events he won’t bother going to Montreal. So guess what Brown has been up to? He’s been working overtime to get those three times he needs to qualify for junior nationals and that could happen April 22-24 when he competes at the Western Canadian championships in Edmonton.
“I’m hoping to get three or more (junior national) times because it’s a long way to go if you don’t have three or more swims,” Brown said. “I haven’t swam long course in two years and you can only qualify for (Canadian junior championships) with a long-course time, but if you converted my short-course times to long course I think I’d have my CJC time.”
Racing is the light at the end of the tunnel that pushes Brown to train and that hasn’t been easy with the pandemic ruling out most swim meets over the past two years.
“It’s nice to see where you’re at and racing kind of motivates you to do better when you see your weaknesses and you see what you need to improve,” said Brown.
He had his first races in nearly 2 ½ years when he competed at a short course meet in Kamloops in December. He also competed at the 18-and-under B.C. provincial championships in Victoria, where he nailed down several times needed to qualify for the Western Canadians.
His 200 freestyle time in Victoria was good enough to place the top-16 and that made his day. He finished 12th in the 200 fly but there were no secondary finals because of reduced pool capacity tied to COVID restrictions.
“He’s working really hard and he’s motivated right now,” said Barracudas head coach Jerzy Partyka. “He is very close to qualifying for junior nationals in 200 fly. He swam lots of best times (in Victoria)”
Brown is already qualified to compete in five events at Westerns – 200m and 400m freestyle, 200m and 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly, one of the most difficult, energy-sapping swim races.
“It’s hard but it’s a fun race, fly has been my Number 1 stroke since I was about 10,” said Brown, 16, now in is 11th year of swimming.
Two years of practice with no meets on the schedule to peak for has been hard on his psyche but Brown has used that time in the pool wisely and has noticeably improved his freestyle stroke. Isaac Bennett, 14, and Josiah Wilkinson, 15, help Brown push the pace in practice.
“My freestyle used to be not super-good race for me and now it’s actually pretty close to my fly,” he said. “It used to just kind of just be fly for me and now freestyle and IM are getting better for me, so that’s nice because I can swim more events at the high-level meets.”
Bennett is the other Barracuda swimmer qualified to race at the Western Canadian meet.
For the first time in three years, the Barracudas club will host its annual Dental Moose Meet long course event, April 29-May 1 at the Aquatic Centre.
“It’s going to be great to finally have a competition in P.G., we’ve only been able to go (two meets) this year and they’ve all been out of town so it will be nice to be here,” said Brown.
The change of seasons into spring has Brown thinking about mountain biking and running, his two favourite cross-training activities. After the Moose Meet he’ll have two more meets before junior nationals - the Wolfpack Invitational in Kamloops, June 10-12, and the B.C. provincial long course championships July 14-27 in Vancouver.
COVID and the lack of racing opportunities hurt the Barracudas and has reduced club membership from 260 in March 2020 to the current 164 members.
Prince George will host the 2022 BC Summer Games, July 21-24 and Barracudas assistant coach Jason Smith will be the coach of the Zone 8 Northeastern B.C. team. Smith is still in the process of taking applications from clubs in the region to determine who will make up the five male, five female Zone 8 team. Some swimmers listed as alternates could also compete, provided they meet Swim BC approval. Swimmers must be between the ages of 12 and 14 as of Dec. 31. 2021 to be age-eligible.
