The Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins are only a couple of weeks away from returning to the pool in a major competitive environment.
And the best part of it all? They’ll be doing so right at home.
The Flying Fins will host the 2022 Swim Sask Junior Provincial championships on the Mar. 4 weekend, with the local crew hard at work in preparation for what they’re expecting will be an outstanding meet not only as tournament hosts but results-wise as well.
“Oh, we’ll have a lot of medal performances at junior provincials, I have no doubt about that,” Flying Fins head coach Gord Shields said matter-of-factly. “And we’ll be right in the thick of things for the team trophy, too. With medals and personal bests, we’re going to do really well and we’re really looking forward to that weekend.”
Success in the pool is only one reason for that -- just having a chance to race again after spending the last two months working on their own at the Kinsmen Sportsplex will be a highlight by itself.
The Fins saw their share of success in the first part of the winter season, but once the Omicron wave hit, things quickly changed when it came to taking the pool in competition. When all was said and done, the Fins found themselves once again limited to a practice-only schedule as they tried to maintain their competitive form.
The good thing is they’ve been able to do just that, with Shields breaking out all sorts of tricks to keep things rolling along.
A time trial race this Saturday is one example, as will be their set of training sessions based on the reality show Survivor next week.
“We’ll have teams that’ll race against each other, immunity challenges and things like that, it’ll be a total blast and it’ll help us build toward the big meets in March and April,” Shields said.
The Fins had been able to avoid COVID-19 throughout the entire pandemic up until recently when the most contagious wave hit the city. Sure enough, members of the team were caught by the coronavirus, but fortunately, there were no major cases.
“That’s even with us being very careful,” Shields said. “For a year and a half we had no cases at all, and the ones we’ve had have only been in the last few weeks with Omicron. So we’ve done really well considering the fact we’ve never paused from swimming.”
It’s expected more than 250 swimmers will take part in Junior Provincials, which will mark the first meet for the Flying Fins with their new state-of-the-art swim blocks. Plans were for a brand new video board to also be in place for the meet, but that couldn’t be accomplished in time.
The event will feature some restrictions in place even with the provincial government relaxing protocols -- masks will be worn on deck, social distancing will be practiced as much as possible and fans won’t be allowed in the pool area. The meet will be fully broadcast on YouTube, though, giving families in town for the weekend a chance to watch from their hotel rooms.
All in all, it promises to be an exciting time for the club, and one they’re most definitely looking forward to.
“Even with everything, it’s been going really well,” Shields said. “The swimmers have been doing great, they’ve kept their enthusiasm up and their training high and they’ve had great attitudes. I expect once we get into some swim meets and racing again we’ll see some really good results.”
Junior provincials begin the evening of Friday, Mar. 4 and run throughout the day Saturday, Mar. 5 before wrapping up on Sunday, Mar. 6.
For the latest information on the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins, be sure to visit their webpage at www.mjkff.ca.
