Four members of the Water Ninjas are being encouraged to set their sights on competing at the Worlds after gaining valuable experience at the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships.

Eli Fitzsimmons, Aaron Swedlo, Jack Dunse, and Isaac Thibodeau returned a few weeks after competing at the Royal Lifesaving Society Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships in Windsor, Sept. 13-17 on Canada's development team.

The new techniques they learned and the experience they gained still resonate and have left them eager to return to the pool.

It was Dunse's first international lifesaving competition and follows appearances at both provincials and nationals the last two seasons.

Now 17, Jack has been a member of the Water Nijas since he was 12 and was inspired to join by his cousin Kevin Knopf, who was a Water Ninja and swam for Canada in the 2019 Commonwealths, hosted in Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England.

"I thought he was the coolest person alive, so I wanted to copy everything he did," says Jack.

"Our family has always been in the water a lot, so even from a young age, I've always been good in the water. It seemed like a natural choice."

Jack doesn't swim with any other club, and he found it appealing to join something that wouldn't tie up his summer or be too costly.

Admitting he's biased, he finds the lifesaving sport more attractive than other forms of competitive swimming.

"The best way to describe it is we use fewer strokes, we don't have backstroke or butterfly or anything, but we have a lot more equipment. There a lot more stuff going on in much shorter races, so it's a little more exciting."

What he experienced at the event, hosted in Windsor, ON, was competition stiffer than that offered at the provincial and national level. As well, most of the Canadian team was under 18 and they were typically competing against older swimmers in their 20s and 30s.

"It felt very much like Canada was going just to learn. They were getting a grasp of how these competitions go, and learning from these older competitors who have been doing this for a few more years than us."

He believes wearing the Canadian flag on their backs had an impact on their performances.

"We really didn't feel like we were competing for Canada until the very last day before races started and then it hit the four of us all at once. It was, oh, we're actually doing this, this is real and we have to race really well because we're representing an entire country. The weight of it hadn't set in."

Jack and other team members set new personal best times in their events.

"I managed to drop a lot of time, and I felt really good coming out of it. I know some guys dropped more than 10 seconds and Isaac dropped 18 seconds on one of his races, which is insane in swimming. That's absolutely ridiculous."

He believes the coaches prepared them well and helped to instill confidence.

"It definitely helped because we felt that much more ready and felt that much more calm and prepared for the competition. When we stepped up to race, it just felt like it was another day, and we were going to go as fast as we could. The pressure wasn't as overbearing as it could have been."

He's eager for the reopening of the local aquatic centre after its annual fall maintenance.

"I'm ready to get back in the water. I think all the guys are because we got a taste of how well we could do."

Isaac Thibodeau, 16, joined the Water Ninjas in 2020 and has been a member of the Cochrane Piranhas for eight years.

"I was looking for some way to continue swimming through the winter and some of my friends had joined. It's been so much fun, and it's such a good sport."

Isaac has competed in two lifesaving provincials and enjoyed his first nationals this year, also hosted in Windsor. He found the Commonwealth championships even more daunting.

"It was mentally difficult because all these different people were training with so many different techniques and styles that it was really hard to focus on myself and do what I usually do. We had done a training session the Wednesday before the competition and we had learned so much new stuff that I wanted to try out, so it was difficult to focus on what I wanted to do in the competition."

That didn't prevent him from having strong performances in the pool. He dropped 18 seconds off his best time in the Super Lifesaver event and made the finals. 

Another highlight was collaborating with people he had met at nationals.

He believes the stiffer competition inspired them to excel.

"In Alberta provincial competitions, it's basically four of us in our age group pushing each other. This time, we competed against 23-year-old Australians, who have Olympic times in swimming, and have been going at it since they were six."

"Being able to compete with people like that just pushes me that much more than just the four of us competing."

He says the Canadian coaches spoke highly of the Cochrane team members.

"The national coach actually said that the boys that come from Cochrane had the most techniques out of anyone in Canada, which is really exciting and shows how well our coaches have been training us."

Most of the pools here are 25m (including Cochrane) For both Isaac and Eli, it was only their second time competing in a 50m pool, adding to the challenge.

News of the four being selected for the team came at the nationals wrap-up banquet.

"He called Aaron, then Eli, then Jack, and then a few people after that I was called, and it was so insane that four out of the 10 people on the team would be from Cochrane representing Canada."

Jack recalls how the cheers kept getting louder as more Cochrane swimmers were called to the podium.

"I was in shock. We were all sitting at the table and then they called up Aaron and Eli. We thought they were the only two going, and it made a lot of sense, and everyone was happy, cheering and everything.

"Then they called Isaac, and then a few people later they called my name."

"Everyone on stage kept cheering louder, knowing that another person was coming with them. It was really fun."

Thoughts are now turning to earning a spot on the Canadian team for the 2024 World Lifesaving Championships being held on Australia's Gold Coast, Aug. 20 and Sept. 8.

"At the 2024 nationals, we'll see what the team is going to Worlds," says Isaac. "Hopefully, it's a lot of the same guys, because they now have that experience behind them.

"That's absolutely my next goal. It's going to take a lot of training and a lot of work, but I hope to make it to Worlds next year."

Jack is striving for even better times in the season ahead.

"Now that we've done this well under all the pressure, I think this year is going to be a highly competitive year for the higher levels of Cochrane, especially because we have some swimmers that didn't go that are now entering that are just as fast as me. I think it will be interesting to see if they can pull up as fast as us."

Canada placed fifth overall with their development team, nearly doubling the score of fifth-place Singapore, and just 19 points behind Wales. Australia, England, and South Africa had the top teams.

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