RIbbons of Green and Gold

Gus Ryder Swim Meet. It was Kieran's first ever swim meet.  Originally supposed to be at an outdoor pool in Etobicoke, but the rains forced the move to Gus Ryder.  It was like a sauna.  I was sweating just sitting.
The kids looked pretty calm.  If it were me I'd be heading to the washroom to pee from nerves.  Also from the morning cup of java.

So all the Rec center teams did their team cheer and then did a parade around the pool.  Sort of like the Olympics, but with no drugs, just sugar from all the juice and snacks.  Hopefully good snacks.  You know fishy crackers or organic cookies that look like Oreo's but are 2x the price.


Xander and Kieran raced early in the schedule, because they are one of the younger competitors.

The sequence of the races goes something like this.
* backstroke 25m race
* front crawl 25m race
* team (4 person) relay 4x25 m (front crawl)
* team medley (4 person) relay 4x25m (each person does a different stroke technique).

There was one more race, but Kieran and I didn't stick around for it.  Rachel (Xander's sister) did it.  I think it was the 100m individual medley that involved each competitor to do 4 different stroke disciplines.

Because he was only scheduled to do the two individual races that he did.   So we headed home to wash up and eat supper.  I was sure he'd be hungry, because I was starving.

But he did great in his two events.  Xander came in 3rd and Kieran came in 4th in the backstroke, which he says is his favourite, and he beat another kid that was in the far lane.  See video.

And then in the front crawl, he placed 5th.  He needs to work on his kicking.  We bought a nice flutter board for him to practice while he's at the cottage.

The Swansea Team coaches told Kieran he was too young to be on the relay team.  But we realized that there weren't any other 7 year olds from Swansea to form a relay team that they could enter into the race.  Kieran was a little bummed out because he was only able to get 2 ribbons.  And the other kids had 4 or 5.  I explained to him that even if he was old enough to be on a team, that he would still need to be good enough to be selected for the team.
So hopefully he takes this to heart and practices at the swim lessons and Splash sessions with more focus and attention.


They were quite proud of their ribbons.
I'm glad Kieran got a taste of the competition and how exciting it is to participate.  I know now if I ask him if he would like to go to another swim meet, he'll say 'yes!'

And were so willing to participate in more events, just to collect ribbons.

That is Asia beside Rachel.  She anchored the first relay and managed to bring home a 1st place ribbon for the team.

For the first Team relay they were pretty much neck and neck for 1st place, but by the 3rd leg, they had a bit of a lead.  And Asia opened quite a gap.
On the second Team relay they had to play catch up, they were in last place, catching up little by little, the 1st place team was to far ahead to catch, but Asia on the anchor leg motored past the other 2 competitors to capture 2nd place!



Gus Ryder Swim meet photos