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Olympians make a splash at AA championships

The Abbotsford Olympians swim club combined for a spectacular series of performances at the Swim BC AA championships in Victoria last week.

The Abbotsford Olympians swim club combined for a spectacular series of performances at the Swim BC AA championships in Victoria last week.

Twelve Olympians swimmers qualified for the meet, most of them for the first time, including Hannah Weinkauf (age 14), James Lee (15), Sam Lee (16), Ilya Taranenko (15), Peyton Smith (14), Sophia McDonald (17), McKenna Postles (11), Tavleen Grewal (11), Ryan Han (11), Maddie Charest (10) and Tobyn Smith (9).

Weinkauf and Postles led the way, each earning a trio of gold medals in freestyle distances in their respective age classes. Weinkauf won the 50-metre, 100m and 200m distances, while Postles was tops in the 200m, 400m and 800m events and added a bronze in the 100m.

Other individual medallists from the local club included Grewal (gold, 200m IM; bronze, 800m free), Han (gold, 200m IM; silver, 400m free), James Lee (silver, 200m fly; silver, 400m IM; bronze, 200m IM), Smith (gold, 100m back; silver, 200m back) and McDonald (silver, 100m breast; bronze, 200m breast).

Additionally, Han, Taranenko and James Lee and Sam Lee combined to win bronze in a relay race.

Along the way, the local swimmers posted multiple club records and AAA qualifying times.