Silver Sharks swim to success

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

For Strathmore Silver Sharks Swim Club members, Boris Kuljanin and Marina Laycraft the countless hours spent at the pool training and competing have provided them further opportunities in the sport.
Kuljanin is in his third year with the swim club and has made multiple provincial appearances, and was the first Silver Shark to get an age group national time at the Medicine Hat meet last month.
He said he was up against other 13-and-14-year-olds in the pool but a lot of the swimmers were competing at the same pace as him, which allowed him to qualify for finals.
“It feels pretty good,” said the Crowther Memorial Junior High School student. “I’m just trying to keep swimming hard. If I keep training hard I can accomplish my goals and even though there’s lots of tough competition I can keep up with them.”
The new training program that the Silver Sharks implemented this year is geared towards the pace of certain events and it has helped enhance his training for competitions.
Kuljanin hopes to get his other two national times at provincials in Calgary on March 5.
Laycraft is in her ninth and final year with the Silver Sharks. She just recently competed against girls who were 16 and up at the Western Canadian Championship in Winnipeg from Feb. 18-21.
She was up against Olympic level swimmers and it was inspiring for her to see how they train for competition.
“That was pretty sweet training for that all year,” said Laycraft. “It’s an inspiration seeing them swim, just seeing how they train everyday can get you that far.”
She was around her best times for the three events she swam in, and almost qualified for finals on Day 2, which would’ve been the first time for her at a Western level.
It’s been great for her growing up with the same swim club members through the nine years because her teammates were always providing encouragement during all the events.