From left, athletes Ethan Parsons, Kaleb Wilford and Kayla Vogel have just returned from Netherlands after performing very well at the competition. There is always pride to be felt when athletes from Camrose compete internationally.

Three local athletes were selected from Camrose this year to compete in Orange Cup, on December 7 and 8. This lifesaving skills competition took  place in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

“We had three athletes who were selected and named to the National Development team, they attended this competition under team Canada. I attended as a coach with the national team,” shared Heather Barr, coach for Camrose Tsunami.

The selected athletes were Kayla Vogel, Ethan Parsons and Kaleb Wilford.

“Camrose athletes did very well. They took off a lot of time. Ethan broke two Provincial records in 50-metre  mannequin carry and 100-metre mannequin carry with fins. A total of 1:34.79 of time was taken off their collective races. There were over 740 athletes competing from 45 different countries,” shared coach Barr.

Athletes compete in various drowning prevention competitions.

“Lifesaving sport is a sport rooted in humanitarian principles of drowning prevention. Life-saving sport is a pathway of supporting this principle by teaching the skills of and growing the passion for swimming. Athletes in this sport have the opportunity to compete regionally, provincially, nationally and if selected, internationally. It is a sport for all ages and welcomes all swimming abilities. Not only does it teach swimming, it teaches lifesaving skills that would be used to rescue a person. Our local club, Camrose Tsunami, has 115 swimmers ages four to 72,” commented coach Barr.

Coach Barr sounded proud of the team. There were only 12 candidates selected in all of Canada and three of them were from Camrose.