Swimming championships to be held this weekend

Yukon swimming fans will have all they can handle this weekend as the first race of the 2008 Yukon Swimming Championships is set to begin Friday at 5:45 p.m.

Yukon swimming fans will have all they can handle this weekend as the first race of the 2008 Yukon Swimming Championships is set to begin Friday at 5:45 p.m.

The meet will continue on Saturday, which will feature competition beginning at 9 a.m.

“The kids have been training all year, so we should see a lot of best times,” said Sue Harding.

“They train from September right through to April, so this should be the time when they are at their absolute best.

It’s a chance for them to show their accomplishments and to feel like they have become better swimmers.

It motivates them to come back again next season.”

All race events are being held at the Canada Games Centre’s Lions Aquatic Centre and it will feature around 100 swimmers in total.

The different types of swimming events will be freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and the individual medley.

Girls and boys will compete in the same category, but there will be age divisions for all of the races at the event.

The different age divisions include eight and under, 10 and under, 12 and under 15 and under and an open age group.

Saturday afternoon will include the 25-m races for kids and a few special olympic athletes.

Swimmers at the Yukon Championships are competing for both medals and ribbons.

Ribbons will be awarded from first to 10th place, while the top three finishers in each age category will be given gold, silver and bronze medals.

The Yukon Swimming Championships is the largest swim meet held in the territory and has a long standing history of more than 10 years of competition.

Approximately 80 swimmers from the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club will be in attendance at the meet, which will also include a group from Haines, Alaska.

Some of the more prominent swimmers competing at the championships include Bronwyn Pasloski and Alex Gabor, who recently returned from the Olympic Trials in Montreal.

Other notable swimmers include Brice Harding, Spencer Sumanik, Hailey Bielz and Tanner Cassidy.