VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 13. IT\u2019s been a big year so far for promising sprint freestyler Yuri Kisil of Calgary.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old is adding another memorable moment to his 2014: the decision to pursue his career at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre \u2013 Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Kisil, who will also study at the University of British Columbia, made his first senior national teams in 2014 following impressive performances at the Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria in April. He made the cut for both the Commonwealth Games July 23-Aug. 3 in Glasgow, Scotland, and the Pan Pacific Championships Aug. 21-25 in Gold Coast, Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve known for a couple of years he would be a great candidate for the Centre,\u2019\u2019 said Tom Johnson, head coach at the HPC-Vancouver. \u201cSince we\u2019ve been watching he\u2019s progressed really nicely. He\u2019s got the characteristics to step up and swim the 100-m freestyle at the world level.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the trials, the 17-year-old posted victories in both the 50-m freestyle and 100-m freestyle, becoming the youngest Canadian ever under 50 seconds in the 100 at 49.87. A few weeks later he was part of the Male Junior Relay Initiative, which won three silver medals in the relays at the U.S. Grand Prix in Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like the swim team at the Vancouver Centre and UBC,\u2019\u2019 said the 6\u20197\u201d Kisil. \u201cI thought about going to the U.S. but in the end it was important for me to stay in Canada and be close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2013, he was a member of the Canadian team at the FINA World Junior Championships in Dubai. He lowered the national age group record in the 50-m freestyle and helped Canada to two fourth-place finishes in relays and to fourth overall in the team standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you find a swimmer like that they are few and far between,\u2019\u2019 said Johnson. \u201cBut he indicated all along the Vancouver Centre was somewhere he was interested in exploring his options and to combine high performance swimming with his university studies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kisil was developed at the Cascade Club in Calgary under Tom\u2019s brother Dave Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cDave has played a key role in my development,\u201d said Kisil. \u201cHe had a great plan for me this season to get me on the national team. He made some great decisions and when the Trials came around I was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 13. IT\u2019s been a big year so far for promising sprint freestyler Yuri Kisil of Calgary. The 17-year-old is adding another memorable moment to his 2014:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":55640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[105,4491,3630,881,39273,239,10714,24993,575,5526,39274,25065,4385,24693,87,142,2444,16610,15765,62,4488,5350,39275,3951,34622],"class_list":["post-56428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-australia","tag-british-columbia","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-cascade-club","tag-charlotte","tag-dave-johnson","tag-dubai","tag-glasgow","tag-gold-coast","tag-head-coach-at-the-hpc-vancouver","tag-newsmasterswimmingworldmagazine-com","tag-scotland","tag-sports","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming","tag-the-commonwealth-games","tag-the-u-s-grand-prix","tag-tom-johnson","tag-united-states","tag-university-of-british-columbia","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-centre","tag-victoria","tag-yuri-kisil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n