Kira Quashie, a member of the Olds Rapids swim team, obtained some great results during the 2019 Swim Alberta Summer Festival in Lethbridge.
Kira Quashie, a member of the Olds Rapids swim team, obtained some great results during the 2019 Swim Alberta Summer Festival in Lethbridge.
The event, held May 25 and 26, was a chance for swimmers to get a taste of provincial-level competition via heats and finals racing.
Competing in the age 10 and under category, Quashie won her heats in the 50-metre (m) breaststroke and freestyle (also known as front crawl) competitions. She placed second in the 100 m breaststroke and IM and finished fourth in the 100 m freestyle.
IM stands for individual medley. In that event, swimmers use all four strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
Quashie finished 21st overall in 10 and under girls 50 m breaststroke in southern Alberta. It's her favourite competition.
During the festival Quashie got a chance to hang out with former breaststroke Olympian Jason Block.
She also got lots of swag, including a hoodie labelled with her name as a 2019 qualifier.
Quashie is a multi-sport athlete. She also competes in track and field and is focused on breaking some records in that sport. During the fall and winter, Quashie also plays hockey. She finds that swimming is great cross training for that.
Rapids head coach Cecilia Wessels is very proud of Quashie's development — not only her actual strokes but her tactical racing skills.
"When you swim a stroke like breaststroke that appears to be a slow stroke, you need to know in each distance when to glide longer or glide stronger or be more aggressive," Wessels said during an interview with the Albertan.
Wessels compared competitive swimmers to racehorses.
"You can't just let them loose. You have to know where in the 400 (m race) you need to pace. She's improved greatly because she is a racehorse and she would just go full out all the way, which isn't always successful.
"So this weekend, she proved to be very tactically strong in knowing when in which distance to glide longer, push harder," Wessels said.
Wessels cited Quashie's performance in one heat in particular.
"She was in lane 1, for instance, the dark horse lane, and she won, because no one was looking at her. No one was expecting her to be tactically strong."
Quashie swam the IM tactically as well.
"She knows that she is not a strong butterfly or backstroker swimmer so she didn't get upset for falling behind. But in her breaststroke, she gained more than 15 metres on all her opponents and then just dominated through to freestyle.
"Again, tactical and not just racing."
