It was 46 C at poolside in Melbourne, Australia.
Unfortunately for Prince George Barracudas swimmer Haley Black, the water provided little relief from the heat.
Part of Canada's eight-female, seven-male junior national team at the Victorian Open swimming championships two weekends ago in Melbourne, the 17-year-old Black faced the unenviable task of having to exert herself on what was that day the hottest spot on earth.
But Black did not wilt, winning the 200 backstroke B-final, finishing 14th in the grueling 400 individual medley and 24th in the 50 butterfly. She ended the meet two days later by advancing to two A-finals,leading to a sixth-place finish in the 200 butterfly and a tie for sixth in the 50-metre backstroke.
"I did pretty well to get into two A-finals and everything else was a B-final, so I did better than I expected," said Black. "It was kind of hard to deal with the sun sometimes because it was so hot and you were just drained. The pool in Melbourne was outdoor but it was covered by a dome. It was so hard to get through one of the practices."
Black's 50 backstroke time of 30.13 was a personal best and her 200 back time of 2:17.56 time established a new Barracudas club record. She was one second off a personal best in the 200 fly in 2:16.23 and her 1:01.50 second-place B-final finish in the 100 fly shaved five-thousands of a second off her previous best. She was second in the 100 back B-final (1:04.40).
"I was pretty happy about getting some best times being that we didn't taper like we usually do at midseason," said Black. "I haven't gotten that close to best times in a long time and it's a good feeling."
Black, who has signed a scholarship agreement with Northern Kentucky University for 2014, helped Canada finish fourth in the 4 X 200 relay freestyle event, while the other Canadian team in that race -- Emily Overholt of West Vancouver, Lili Margitai of Edmonton, Frdrique Cigna of Montreal and Kennedy Goss of Toronto -- won gold. That group also won the 4 X 100 medley relay.
The Canadian team spent three weeks in Australia, starting with a two-week training camp in Geelong before heading to Melbourne for another week of training leading up to the long course meet, which wrapped up Jan. 19 and included swimmers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Canada.
"There's a lot of attention on swimming in Australia, a lot of people swim there, it's kind of like hockey here," Black said.
Several high-profile swimmers competed in the Melbourne meet, including James Magnussen of Australia, a silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympics and the current 100m freestyle world champion, and Tae-Hwan Park of South Korea, the 400 free Olympic champion in the 2008 in Beijing who won two freestyle silver medals in London.
Black is the first Barracuda swimmer to make a junior national team. Her success in Australia has rejuvenated her approach to her sport, which demands training in the pool six days per week.
"I'm excited about swimming again," said Black. "I was doubting myself before and it was hard for me to get excited about it. But now I'm more confident and really excited about racing again."
Black was at the Prince George Aquatic Centre Saturday morning for the club's 200m time trials but she has a light training schedule ahead of her while she rests her body as much as she can before this weekend's short course provincial championships in Kamloops. The first long course meet is the senior national team trials in Victoria in April.
