Guelph synchro swim club getting busy

DAVE POLLARD

DAVE POLLARD, GUELPH MERCURY The Guelph Synchronized Swimming Club's Tier Seven (elite) team performs a routine during a demonstration session for Girl Guides and Pathfinders at the Victor Davis Pool. The team is also to perform at the University of Guelph's College Royal festivities this weekend as it prepares for next week's divisional championships in Montreal.

GUELPH (Mar 19, 2004)

The Guelph Synchronized Swimming Club is gearing up for the busiest time of the season.

The club's Tier Four team is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Ontario Winter Games in London and is preparing for the western Ontario championships early next month at the Victor Davis Pool. The event in Guelph, which is scheduled for April 2-4, is a qualifier for the provincial championships.

The Guelph Tier Two and Three teams will also compete in their home pool while some local swimmers will also take part in the duet competition.

Meanwhile, the national-stream Tier Six (pre-elite) and Tier Seven (elite) teams are preparing for the divisional championships in Montreal next week. Both will attempt to qualify for the Canadian championships.

"It's the more major part of the year," GSSC head coach Anne Frazer said. "It's a lot more hectic. It's a fine-tuning time of year. Everything is made up, now they're performing it. Everyone should know what they're doing."

The teams will get a chance to perform their routines in front of an audience Saturday at the University of Guelph as part of the College Royal festivities. It will be the second time in just over a week that the GSSC has had the chance to swim their routines in front of an audience.

On March 11, the club held a demonstration night at the Victor Davis Pool, inviting more than 50 Girl Guides and Pathfinders to watch, then try their hand at synchronized swimming. The reason for the session was twofold - to expose the sport to more young women, in part to recruit more swimmers, and also to refine the routines in an atmosphere that simulated a competition.

"It's more about an awareness of the sport," GSSC manager Lynn Hammond said. "If you end up interesting anybody, it's a bonus. To have a membership increase is good. We want to expose the sport. (The Girl Guides) are at an age where they have an easy transfer into synchronized swimming.

"At this time of year it gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the competitive program. It gives (the swimmers) an opportunity to try out their program in front of an audience."

Hammond says the club is healthy, with 36 swimmers in the competitive program and another 21 in the recreational program. It has grown steadily the last "three or four years," she says, and is no longer the "little club" in the region.

"Our club is doing fairly well actually," Frazer added. "It's still a fairly new club but we have more teams than we ever had. We're going further in events than we ever have."

But last week's demonstration wasn't only about trying to attract new members. The club just wants to let people see what the sport, which gets little recognition in non-Olympic years, is all about.

"It's important for synchro in general," Hammond said. "The fact these girls are athletes is not recognized. Creating an awareness of the sport is important."