Calgary Swordfish Swimmer takes on the All Stars

The 2025 Swim Alberta All Stars Festival was held in Lethbridge Alberta this past weekend for qualified swimmers in Alberta.  The Calgary Swordfish swim club saw two of our own swimmers qualify for this event; Mateo Valquez (11) in the 100m Butterfly and Christian Chu (10) qualify for 5 individual events with times that met the standard(s) to be invited to this year end event.  While all the winter season swimmers have been training for the year, our summer season swimmers have just started their swim training.  Christian attended the 3 day event and was entered into 6 events, the 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle, 100m Individual Medley, and 100m Backstroke.  In addition to the 6 individual events, Christian was also part of the ASSA contingent and swam in the 200m Freestyle relay and the 200m Medley relay team as well as being selected to the Festivals North vs South 200m Freestyle relay team.  

Winter swim meets are organized differently than summer meets, the events are separated into preliminary and final events where swimmers entered into the event all swim the prelims to determine the top 8 times, who then move on to swim the finals in the afternoon.  Summer swim meets hold their events in an finals configuration where all swimmers swim the event once and the times are sorted accordingly.  The relay events at all winter and summer swim meets are run as a finals only. 

In the relay events, the ASSA All Stars 200m Freestyle swam in lane 3 and got off to a good start with the lead Nathan McGunigale (Grande Prairie Aquarians) going out on a 37.46 to hold 3rd position.  Asher Petryshen-Kozak from the Spruce Grove Barracudas swam a 35.88 to hold us in 4th position while Oren Mainville (Wainwright Torpedoes) took the 3rd leg and swam a 37.05 to hand it off to our own Christian Chu to swim anchor.  The ASSA team was trailing in 4th by 5 seconds to the Killarney Swim Club.  Christian swam a 34.04 in the final 50m to take Gold by 0.2 seconds in a thrilling race that saw the entire audience roaring in excitement.  In the 200m Medley relay, the ASSA team lined up against the best swimmers from the province and placed a very strong 2nd place to bring home the ASSA All Stars a Silver medal and 2 relay podium results for ASSA.  Asher Petryshen-Kozak led off with the backstroke and swam a 43.02 where Ezra Brown swam a 49.74 in the breast stroke and touched the pads to give Christian the 3rd in the butterfly where he finished his leg in 38.95 to give Nathan the anchor freestyle where he swam a 35.16 to bring home a solid Silver medal.  

In the individual events, Christian qualified for 5 individual event finals by swimming very strategic and paced prelims.  In the 50m Freestyle, he qualified with a 34.24, placing him 8th for the finals.  Christian then proceeded to swim his personal best (PB) of 33.80, which is 0.39 off our all time Swordfish club record, set in 2011.  This placed him 7th overall at the All Stars event.  In the 100m backstroke, not an event that is normally allowed for summer swimmers to compete in for the 9-10 age division, Christian swam a 1:20.39 to seed himself 1st for the finals.  Going into the finals in lane 4, Christian swam a consistent 1:20.40 to finish first and capture his first Gold of the meet.  On to the 100m IM, Christian swam a 1:25.48 to punch his ticket to the finals in 3rd place.  However, our Swordfish swimmer turned it up and swam a 1:23.10 to capture not only the Gold medal, but also improve his PB and close in on the club record and come within 0.26sec.  With the 50m backstroke up next, Christian swam a 37.63 to seed 1st for the finals where he swam a 36.48 to place 1st and also set a new club record in the event.  In the final individual event for Christian's weekend, Christian swam the 50m butterfly.  Prelims had him swim a 38.55 to seed 2nd going into the event, with Luke Cullum from the Cascades swim club taking lane 4 with a 38.20.  In the finals, Christian flew out and shaved 1.83 seconds to take first with a 36.72 time.  This is a new personal best for Christian and also places him 2nd all time in the Swordfish record books.  

With any All Stars event, the best of the best all come together and compete to showcase all the hard work and dedication that these athletes have put in during the countless hours of training throughout the season.  As such, a fun North vs South relay team was assembled by selecting the 4 fastest swimmers from the North and pitted them against the 4 fastest swimmers from the South.  In Alberta, there are thousands of swimmers competing every year and to be selected to represent your region is no ordinary task.  Christian Chu from the Calgary Swordfish was selected to represent Team South and put in a 33.34 split as he swam the 2nd leg of the 200m relay.  While this is an unofficial time and cannot be used for his PB or any records, it would have given Christian a new personal best AND would have set a new club record if it had counted.  Nonetheless, the South swam an exciting race and all swimmers had a great time competing against one another.  Smiles and laughs could be seen and heard from the participants all the way through to the finish.

To top off his amazing weekend, Christian also earned the Top 5 award and a spot on the Youth Recognition List.