Four local swimmers shaved four seconds off the Canadian record for 11 to 12-year-old boys in the four-by-100m relay race.
Colin Campbell of Fergus and Russell Burton, William Beckstead-Holman and Marcus Beckstead-Holman, all of Guelph, now hold the new record of 4:06min after smashing the old record set in 1988.
The boys swam in a special timed trial at the Victor Davis pool in Guelph on April 9 because there aren’t very many opportunities for this race elsewhere, explained coach Laura McPhie.
The boys were four out of a small group that swim relay with the Guelph Marlins Aquatic Club.
McPhie explained the boys are picked “to go in the various places based on what type of racer they are” to keep the momentum of the relay going. She went on to explain each of the boys has a strength, which determines their order in relay races.
The team had to beat 4:10min. William led the pack with a minute for his hundred metres. “Then (Burton) dove in and he went 0:59, so halfway through the race we are at 1:59, so we are pretty much golden,” said McPhie.
“Both of the next two boys really stepped up too. (Marcus) went third and went a 1:02 and (Campbell) was our anchor and he was a 1:03 low. So we were clear under the record,” she added.
The boys, as well as the crowd that had gathered at the pool, cheered as the team grabbed the record.
“We were just going in with an open mind. It was the first time we swam the race long course, we know we can do the times but we just wanted to go faster,” said Burton.
Campbell told his dad after the race, “it doesn’t feel that much different, but you could feel that you did something pretty amazing.”
McPhie said they made a lot of improvement over the season. They started out with a slim chance of getting the record at the beginning of the year.
“We really needed one more person to really bring down the time a lot and that was Colin this year – he’s taken off a ton of time,” said McPhie.
She added she has been impressed with the group of boys.
“It is very, very rare to have the convergence of young men that we currently have in Guelph and they feed off each other’s speed,” she said.
“No one since 1988 put four boys together that could do the same thing.”
McPhie recently took the group to watch the 2016 Rio Olympic trials at the beginning of April in Toronto. The boys were able to see what they would be striving for at the next Olympic trials four years down the road.
“It was cool seeing what we can become and what can happen if we keep going forward with swimming and all our training,” said Campbell.
“My goal is to become an Olympian at 2020,” added Burton.
Right now, the relay team is happy with its record breaking swim, but there are more goals on the horizon.
“I’m looking forward to setting some more records,” said Burton.
