CANMORE – Winning individual and team awards, the small Bow Valley Riptides Swim Club was a giant in the lanes at the Alberta championships.
A big part of the team's success was from a four-medal performance by 13-year-old Benedek Purnhauser at the 2022 Provincial Championships in Edmonton from March 17-20.
"I was not expecting these results at all. I’m super proud of myself for achieving these," said Purnhauser.
A torpedo in the water, the local swimmer was golden in the 50-metre backstroke, silvers in 50m free and 100m free, and bronze in 100m back. He also broke five club records at the event.
"The really amazing thing with Ben is he has only been swimming probably for six months," said Tom Shackel, head coach of the Riptides. "We had a roughly two-year break from COVID, and pre-that, he was 11 and in our novice program here. ... To go from that to a swim meet with the best athletes in the age from all over Alberta, it’s a super good achievement."
With the backing of Purnhauser’s four medals, strong results from Riptides Sydney Short, Kahlen Anderson, Jaime Lakusta and Chloe Kestle, who was ninth in 200m fly, gave the Riptides the edge in winning the small club banner.
Banners are awarded to the top small, medium and large clubs based on points earned by athletes during provincials.
"[As far as] real competition, this was the first event that we actually had people to race, so that was fun," said Lakusta, 17."I was just really happy to be there after two years of like no racing. I was really happy with my times – I was close to all my best times."
Shackel added they all contributed, whether it was relay or individual finals to the first club banner since he's been coaching the Riptides.
“I’m really proud of the group and the team and how they’ve come together after such a long break to get back to like the work ethic that’s needed to get to that level," he said.
"These are athletes who’ve moved themselves along post-COVID to get to a new stage, which was that swim meet in Edmonton and hopefully that continues and it continues to be a building block for us with swimming in Canmore where we can begin to look at ourselves at being at that level of success regularly in a similar way to cross-country skiing in Canmore or these more established programs like see themselves at that level that goals an expectations."
