Wog bounces back at CanWest Swimming Championship

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/12/2017 (3177 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Kelsey Wog steps onto the starting block, there’s no restraining the young swimmer.

Wog, 19, won six medals at this year’s Canada West Swimming Championship held at the University of Victoria from Nov. 24 to 26.

The breaststroke specialist with the University of Manitoba Bisons won the women’s 50-metre with a time of 31.01 and set two new personal bests and meet records in the 100-metre breaststroke (1:05.59) and the 200-metre individual medley (2:09.29).

Wog also returned to Winnipeg with a collection of silver and bronze, finishing second in the 200-metre breaststroke (2:27.86) and the women’s 4×100-metre freestyle relay (3:50.14), and third in the women’s 4×100-metre medley relay (4:14.18).

“I just went for it and didn’t hold back,” Wog said. “My coach was pretty happy, I think.”

The Vincent Massey Collegiate alumna and Linden Woods local was also named Canada West first star of the week for Nov. 26 and was crowned female swimmer of the meet at the championship. She is the first Manitoba Bison to earn the honour.

“I was honestly surprised by it, and it was kind of fun I guess, and it shows that I put in a lot of work,” Wog said.

The success at Canada West marks a change in trajectory for Wog, who at the end of the summer said she was struggling to make her marks at competition.

Since earning a silver medal at the 2016 FINA World Swimming Championships in the 200-metre breaststroke (short course) last December, Wog has gone on to win the 200-metre breaststroke at the 2017 Canadian Swimming Championships this August. She also placed third in the 50-metre breaststroke and 200-metre medley in Montreal.

“After my big performance at short course worlds, I felt a lot of pressure to keep doing well in that event and the pressure definitely got to me,” Wog explained. “I couldn’t do it at the time.”

Wog said her performance at Canada West is a testament to the work she’s been putting in at the pool daily and a new approach to competition that she’s developed with a sports psychologist.

“It’s really good for my self confidence to make me feel a bit better, that I am getting back to where I was before, and I can continue to do really well and I have the potential,” she said.

“I’ve been going with my new strategy of not thinking about the race until right before and just really focusing in on it, focusing on just effort, and letting it all go,” she added.

Wog will be in competition next at the U Sports Swimming Championships at the University of Toronto in February.

Facebook.com/TheSouwesterWPG
Twitter: @SouwesterWPG