Whitehorse’s aquatic dynamic duo Alexandra Gabor and Bronwyn Pasloski are feeling good about the coming season.
Competing in the Victoria Senior Circuit in BC last weekend, the two Glacier Bears swim team members produced four first-place finishes between the two of them.
“It wasn’t really a big meet,” said Pasloski. “It was just start-of-the-year, kicking-it-off type of thing.”
Swimming in five events, Gabor took first place in three and second in the remaining two. Not only did Gabor tie her best time in the 50-metre freestyle, finishing second with a time of 26.35, she also beat her best time by a full second in the 800-metre freestyle, putting her in first with a time of 8:53.28.
“It’s pretty cool considering that it’s the beginning of the season and all,” said Gabor, who also came first in the 200- and 400-metre freestyle events. “It’s a great starting off point. It gives me confidence for the rest of the year; knowing that I can do it now, imagine how much faster I’ll be later in the season…
“As long as I keep working hard, I think I can get a lot faster than that.”
The 800-metre freestyle, in which Gabor got a personal best time, is not her strongest event. But her lack of best times in her strong events fails to concern her.
“My best events weren’t the greatest,” said Gabor. “But I’m not too worried because I’m not tapered or anything, and that’s not really what I’ve been focusing on right now…
“We haven’t quite got into the sprint part (of training) yet, which is why my 100- and 200-(metre times) weren’t quite up to par.”
Gabor’s other second-place finish came in the 100-metre freestyle.
Pasloski’s best success came in the 200-metre individual medley; she finished three seconds ahead of the second place finisher with a time of 2:20.33.
“All my races went pretty well, except my 200-metre breaststroke,” said Pasloski. “I was just off on all my best times. Yeah, my 200 breaststroke wasn’t that great, but that’s OK. It was just a warm-up.”
Racing in three other events, Pasloski also took second in the 100-metre breaststroke. Results were unavailable for her two other events, the 200 breaststroke and the 100-metre butterfly.
“I didn’t really pay too much attention to the results,” said Pasloski. “I just checked my own times.”
After the meet, Gabor and Pasloski spent a day with Team BC swimmers in a training camp.
“It was hard,” said Pasloski, of the camp. “It was a challenge because we did eight test-sets in three practices, which is quite a load actually. Usually you’re just supposed to do one, maybe two of them, per practice.”
Both Gabor and Pasloski will be travelling to Toronto in late November to compete in the Canada Cup, which is part of the senior circuit.