With the FINA World Cup coming up this weekend in Brazil, Swimming Canada featured the following article highlighting UVPCS talent Richard Weinberger:

Seven Canadian swimmers will be taking part in the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup this Sunday in Santos, Brazil with hopes of getting closer to an Olympic berth.

Amongst these seven athletes, Victoria’s Richard Weinberger is heading into the event with high expectations and the determination to extend his winning streak.

Weinberger produced Canada’s top result in the 10k during last summers’ World Championships in Shanghai, yet a 16th place finish wasn’t enough to secure his spot for the Olympic swimming marathon in London. Only the top 10 swimmers at the Shanghai Championships earned their ticket to London, while the remaining 15 slots are yet to be filled.

“The ultimate goal for me to be a medal contender at the Olympics,” said Weinberger. “But before I achieve that, I need to focus attaining the little goals that my coach and I have established. Training hard and achieving my race plan is constantly the focus of what I want to accomplish, and wining the race will be the result of all the hard work.” In an average week, Weinberger swims 100km.

According to his coach Ron Jacks, Weinberger has been building his confidence since the Worlds and strives toward prolonging his wining streak. Weinberger won the Olympic Test event last August ahead of the World champion. Later in the season, he produced a gold medal for Canada at the Pan American Games in Mexico.

Other Canadians competing in Brazil are Zsofia Balazs of Toronto, ON, Caitlin Nolan of LaSalle, QC, Tyra Rooney of Calgary, AB, Nadine Williams of Sherwood Park, AB, Xavier Desharnais, Sherbrook, QC and Aimeson King of Victoria, BC will the hunt for a spot on Canada’s squad advancing to the 10km Marathon swimming Olympic qualifier.

Swimming Canada, the governing body for competitive swimming in Canada, will be selecting a team of 4 athletes (2 male, 2 female), to race under the maple leaf banner at the Olympic Marathon Qualifier in Sebutal, Portugal next June with hopes of grabbing the remaining spots available to compete for the first time in the 10km race at the London Olympic games since its inception at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The top-placing Canadian swimmer at either the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cups in Brazil (January 29th) or Argentina (February 4th) will be selected to attend the Olympic Marathon Qualifier.

The second qualifier will then be the next top-placing swimmer from either FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cups in Brazil, Argentina or Mexico on April 21st.

Official selection document is available on the Swimming Canada website at: www.swimming.ca/SelectionCriteria

Source: swimming.ca

by CTV VI

The UVic Vikes are headed to Canada West Championships in Edmonton albeit with a more junior squad than last year.

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Please Note:  Due to an electrical problem, Saanich Commonwealth Place will be closed all day today, Monday January 23, 2012.

All of our SCP programs (including: School Teams, LFSS, B-Prov Group, and D-Group) are cancelled for tonight and will resume tomorrow. Programs at UVic are on as usual.

SCP plans to be open tomorrow, but we will update the website if that changes.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Competition in Austin wound down today, with our UVPCS swimmers both competing in the 200 Butterfly as their last event.  Both Rachael Newman and Nicholas Sinclair made the consolation final, and set personal best times. 

Newman placed 14^th overall with a time of 2:18.23, while Sinclair finished in 11^th place with a time of 2:04.87.

The Austin Grand Prix continued today, with both Nicholas Sinclair and Rachael Newman delivering strong swims on day 2.

Sinclair was the only Canadian to make it to the A final in the 200 Freestyle (though 4 Canadians made the B final).  He improved on his morning time in the final, coming in 7th place with a time of 1:51.56, and was again the top-ranked Canadian.  Sinclair also took part in the consolation final for the 200 Backstroke  less than 15 minutes later, where he finished in a time of 2:06.00.

Newman competed in the 200 Freestyle, once again exceeding her personal best time to clock in at 2:09.55.

The Austin Grand Prix meet began today, with UVPCS swimmers Nicholas Sinclair and Rachael Newman representing the team, fresh off the UVic and Pacific Coast Senior training camp in San Diego.  The two posted 100 percent best times across five individual swims on the first day of competition.

Sinclair had two fantastic races in the morning, starting with a personal best in the 100 Freestyle, 52.43.    The most newsworthy race of the morning, however, came from Sinclair in the 400 Freestyle, in which he shaved over 8 seconds off of his best time, and managed to move himself 42 spots up from the psych sheets into 4th position going into the finals tonight.  Nick improved on his time once again in the finals, placing 7th with a time of 3:54.33.

Newman competed in three events, the first being the 100 Freestyle, shaving a fraction of a second off of her best time (and breaking 1:00.00) to touch in at 59.87.  She went on to set another best time in the 400 Freestyle with 4:31.51, and a third in the 100 Fly, dropping down almost two seconds to reach 1:03.13, and just missing the bonus final in an extremely experienced field. 

The second day of racing saw 7th place finishes for Lauren and TeamBC in both the Girls 11-12 200m Medley Relay and Girls 11-12 400m Freestyle Relay. Lauren also had a 7th place finish in the Girls 11-12 50m Backstroke.

Full results will be available on the our Results page.

The first day of racing at SwimBC All Star Meet in Langley saw Lauren Crisp and her TeamBC team-mates take 6th place in both the Girls 11-12yo 200m freestyle relay and 400m medley relay.

Lauren also took 8th place in the Girls 11-12yo 100m backstroke.

The full story on day one racing can be found on the SwimBC website.

A link to the live results can be found here or on our results page.

The second day of racing continues today.

Congratulations (and perhaps a virtual mug of hot chocolate) to all the C-group kids that swam in the New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim at Elk Lake. (Photo credit to Scott Ballantyne).

Congratulations to Finn Barker, Lauren Crisp, Emma Carter, Patricia Horwood, Allison Ballantyne, Nick Nolt, Michael Schmidt, Nathan Howe, David Hiebert and Kris Neilson for selection to the SwimBC 12 and Under camp taking place in February.