Swimmer Nicholas Bennett of Parksville would have liked to have proven himself in the competitive pool but he’ll take the dryland decision to join the more than 75 Island or Island-based athletes expected to compete this summer in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The 17-year-old Bennett, from the Ravensong Breakers club team in Qualicum Beach, received one of the final four nominations Thursday for the 19-member Canadian swim team to the Paralympics. Because of a date conflict with the World Para swimming championships in Berlin, the Canadian Para swimmers will not be able to take part in the rescheduled Olympic swim trials, moved from May 24-28 to June 19-23 in Toronto, because of the pandemic situation in Ontario. With no national trials, Para swimmers had to submit training logs and data and individual video recordings to demonstrate competitive readiness for the Games.
“This is the conclusion of a very challenging and different process, far from what we have been accustomed to in our sport,” said Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada Para national team coach, in a statement.
Bennett, who competes in the Paralympics autistic category, won three gold medals and a silver in the 2019 Lima Para Pan Am Games in Peru.
“Nicholas [Bennett], Matthew [Cabraja], Tammy [Cunnington] and Angela [Marina] along with their coaches have each demonstrated through their performances at the end of May their talent, tenacity, adaptability and ability to perform on demand. Off the back of these performances, I am confident that they will be in even better shape to perform for Canada in Tokyo this summer,” said Lomas.
It took a team effort to get the selection done in a fair and equitable manner.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the provincial sport organizations, technical officials and the countless other volunteers who all assisted our swimmers to submit their performance for demonstrating competitive readiness,” said Lomas.
“While it is our swimmers and coaches who work so hard together for these performances, the opportunity to submit these time-trials required the support and assistance of many other unsung heroes.”
The qualifying process for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has been interrupted in almost every sport.
“These have been difficult times and this was a challenging process,” said Swimming Canada CEO Ahmed El-Awadi.
“In the end, we’re confident this is the best team to represent Canada.”
ROWING TO TOKYO: Victoria Nolan from the Victoria City Club and Kyle Fredrickson from the UVic Vikes — with their Elk Lake-based PR3 mixed coxed four teammates Bayleigh Hooper, Andrew Todd and coxswain Laura Court — stroked closer to the Paralympics at the last-chance qualifier in Gavirate, Italy. The Canadian crew won its preliminary race Thursday to advance directly to Saturday’s final, out of which the winner will punch its ticket to Tokyo.
“It’s been tough waiting this long, but we finally got out there. Nerves were high, but we got the first one under our belt, so we’re feeling pretty good,” said Nolan, a blind 46-year-old mother of two, aiming for her fourth Paralympics after Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
“COVID has definitely presented some barriers, but I think we’ve been able to adapt really well to all the changes and the different protocols, and I think we’ve just been able to go with the flow and keep our focus on racing.”
Jessye Brockway of Mill Bay, a member of the Gorge Narrows Rowing Club, and Jeremy Hall of Edmonton placed second behind Italy in their preliminary race Thursday in the PR2 mixed double and will have to go through today’s repechage in order to reach the final Saturday.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
