Lucas Punkari
After becoming the first-ever member of the Fort Frances Aquanauts to reach a national final with a seventh-place showing in the 200m I.M. in Winnipeg last year, Donovan Taylor is hoping to once again have a strong showing at this year’s Canadian age group championships in Montreal.
However, the recently-turned 17-year-old knows it won’t be easy.
“It’s going to be a hard meet,” Taylor stressed.
“The guy that are going to be out there are really strong, and there are couple of them that are heading to the senior nationals right after this meet,” he noted.
“So I’m not setting my goals really high, but I’m aiming to make the semi-final session in the 200 I.M. as that is my speciality event.”
Taylor will be swimming in a total of eight events during the meet, which runs today through Sunday at the Parc Jean Drapeau.
He’ll also be competing in the 50m, 100m, and 200m butterfly, the 100m and 200m backstroke, the 200m breaststroke, and the 400m I.M.
Since his last meet, the North Baltimore Aquatic Club Long Course Championships in early June, Taylor has been working hard in training over the last few weeks to prepare himself for Montreal.
“At first, we were working on, and focusing a lot on, the shorter distances and the sprints,” he remarked. “But we found that my endurance was really lacking, especially with the hot weather we have been having here recently.
“So when I’m in the pool, I’ve been really trying to work on my endurance because if you just do sprints and you run into hot weather in Montreal, you won’t do as well,” he reasoned.
“I’ve also been working on my technique, and I’m also keeping to a strict diet because I am so limited to my training time in the pool this summer.”
During the outdoor meet in Baltimore last month, Taylor’s coach and mother, Dawnn, noticed that he was moving all over the place in his lane during the 200m backstroke race, which led to an interesting method used in practice to try and rectify that issue before swimming outside in Montreal.
“We’ve been doing what we call ‘blind swimming,’ where you blindfold yourself, shut your eyes, and try to swim back in a straight line,” he explained.
“This helps me stay bilateral in the water and helps my hand position, because that means so much when you are going fast.
“And you watch for the stroke count, as well, so you can figure out the distance per stroke to how close you are to the wall.
“While there are flags out in the water there and markers, you still need to make sure you know where you are in the pool,” Taylor stressed.
This week’s meet in Montreal marks the end of the competitive season for Taylor. He’ll then take some time off to prepare for next year’s campaign, which he thinks will start in September in either Winnipeg or Thunder Bay.
“When you [get] to August, most everyone I know in swimming takes that month to get some rest,” Taylor said.
“We can’t swim all the way through the year. We’re not [Michael] Phelps yet,” he smiled.
