A pair of Cochrane Water Ninjas have returned home from a successful showing at the 2019 Commonwealth Festival of Lifesaving that was held in Leeds, United Kingdom Nov. 21 to 23.
Cochranites Joel Smyke and Kevin Knopf who regularly compete with the local Cochrane Water Ninjas, went overseas to represent their club and Canada against some of the best lifesavers from across the world.
The festival aims to encourage participation in lifesaving sport and further development of lifesaving practices, as well as bring the lifesaving family together. In addition to the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships, the 2019 event will also include an individual skill element and non-competitive sports section.
"I was absolutely ecstatic about receiving the invitation to the development team, and then the promotion to the national team amplified that," said Knopf in a past interview with the Eagle when he heard the news about qualifying for the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships.
"The events are all based on actual lifesaving skills that are modified to a race environment. With the team we have, I have high hopes that we could place in the top 10."
"A huge rush of adrenaline, excitement, and euphoria," Smyke said, echoing what his teammate said. "I expect that it will be an amazing experience ... I am extremely excited to be competing with Canada, and many other countries part of the Commonwealth. I have been more motivated now more than ever, and I am hoping that I can push through and get personal best times in at least half of my events."
Both swimmers managed to put together personal bests in a number of different categories and said the whole experience was a great one.
"It was a crazy, awesome experience," Smyke said. "I met so many cool people and I had so much fun with Team Canada. We were able to take home three medals overall and we placed sixth out of 15."
"I felt great about how I personally did. I have never performed that well at a competition as I ended up proving best times in every individual event I took part in excluding line throw."
Knopf said his experience was also amazing, competing for the first time overseas.
"Overall the experience was so amazing," he said. "So many cool experiences with new people. I feel like I personally performed very well as I came 11th for points after my teammate Rylun Alberg-Moore. I was extremely surprised with how I stacked up (against the competition) as I made the 'B' final for every event which was very cool."
Both Smyke and Knopf said they felt nervous yet confident heading into the competition. Both were ecstatic to wear the Canadian colours, a distinction that not every athlete gets to achieve.
"Yes I was quite nervous going into the competition," Smyke said.
"To see how talented other athletes were was incredible and inspiring. Overall I wasn't concerned with how I performed compared to other athletes, I was just focused on beating my previous best times."
"It was a great experience to represent Canada," Knopf said of his experience. "It was a very good team of people that were feeding us and making sure we were OK ... every athlete on the team was awesome."
Both boys were also quite proud to be representing their club team on a national stage.
"It was awesome having Joel on the team," he said. "It made it much easier to go through a new country with a buddy who has my back. I definitely felt like I was representing Cochrane and trying to show what we can do."
"During practices, Kevin and I would often wear our Cochrane team caps to show our pride for our team," Smyke said. "It felt really nice having somebody there that I had trained with for years."
The pair have already gotten back in the water on North American soil and will strive for new personal bests in upcoming competitions.
