Wog breaks barrier at Canadian swim trials

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This article was published 27/07/2018 (2947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pair of podium performances at the recent Canadian swimming trials in Edmonton marked a breakthrough for Linden Woods’ Kelsey Wog.

Wog, 19, swam two personal bests at the national event (which was held from July 18 to 22) to secure a spot on Canada’s senior women’s team that will compete at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo, Japan during the last week of August.

“It was really good to get back to being at my best,” Wog told The Sou’wester while preparing to depart for Japan.

“The past year and a half, I’ve been struggling with nerves and racing and stuff and I’ve been seeing a psychologist, and that has really helped,” she said. “I haven’t got a best time for two years, and I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Wog, a sophomore member of the University of Manitoba’s swim team, took gold in the 200-metre breaststroke in a time of 2:23.83, shaving two seconds off of her personal best in her signature event.

In the 200-metre individual medley, she finished second and took four seconds off her PB with a mark of 2:11.14. And in the 100-metre breaststroke, Wog finished fourth in a time of 1:08.07.

Heading into her fifth Canadian trials, Wog said she kept a clear head and was focused on her own performance, rather than those of her competitors. After a season’s worth of racing, she was confident in her training, both in the pool with coach Vlastik Cerny and with her sports psychologist, and was itching to get on the starting block.

“I felt so much better going into this meet. I was just more calm and relaxed about it and I didn’t really put pressure on myself,” she said. “I just wanted to get in there and race.”

Earlier this year, Wog swept the competition at the U Sports Swimming Championships at University of Toronto, where she earned gold in the 50-, 100- and 200-metre breaststroke races, as well as silver in 200-metre individual medley.

At the December 2016 FINA World Swimming Championships, in Windsor, Ont., Wog took a silver medal in the short course 200-metre breaststroke (just 00.01 seconds off of gold) in her first appearance with Team Canada at the senior level.

Wog said the trials results represented significant milestone as she looks forward to the Pan Pacific meet and returning for her third year at the U of M.

“It meant a lot to me because it was kind of a breakthrough for me and it was really important that the breakthrough happened here so I can keep going on,” Wog said.

“I knew I had been training really hard, and things had been going really well, so I was happy to be able to pull it together.”

Wog will swim the 100-metre breaststroke, the 200-metre breaststroke and 200-metre individual medley in Tokyo and said she would be happy to repeat the times she made in Edmonton.

As far as her Olympic aspirations, Wog said the trials in April 2020 are still a long way off

“In 2016,  I was so close and ever since then I’ve had that on my mind, but there’s still a few more meets coming up before Olympic trials, and honestly anything can happen. The sport is crazy,” she said.