By Claude Scilley
Kingston Whig Standard, Local Sports - Tuesday, January 24, 2006 @
07:00
Jessika
Craig
remembers well the day coach Gord
Emmerson told her she was going to Australia to swim.
“First I
thought he was just joking,”
Craig said, “but he told me he wasn’t.
“Then I
thought I was going to throw
up.”
Of course it turned out
Emmerson
wasn’t joking and, fortunately, Craig didn’t throw
up. “Then I was
really excited,” Craig said, “and by the end of
practice it had kind of
sunk in.”
Craig did indeed go to
Australia and
not only that, she came home with two gold medals.
“For her to go
there and swim well
would have been nice,” said Emmerson, Craig’s coach
with the Ernestown
Barracudas. “To make a final would have been nice.
“To win two
gold medals with the
times she had, was exceptional.”
Craig, 16, was part of a
national
youth and junior team that went to Australia for three weeks starting
Dec. 27 to compete in two state championship meets in Victoria. The
team was comprised of young swimmers identified by Swimming Canada as
prospects for the 2008 Olympic team.
Craig had been named an
alternate to
the team and got the opportunity to travel when another team was unable
to go.
The first of the meets
she contested
was an open competition, and Craig said she didn’t do very
well.
“It was a
mixture of jet lag and the
heat and I wasn’t exactly focused,” she said.
“It started off with one
bad swim and the rest of them kind of went downhill.
“They were all
right swims but not
what you want to do at that level. The Australians are crazy fast. Some
of the times they were doing they would have won nationals
here.”
Back in Amherstview,
however,
Emmerson wasn’t concerned.
“She did a
training camp before she
left and I think Australia’s about a 20-hour
flight,” he said. “You get
off a plane and do another training camp. Her body hadn’t
recovered
yet. She goes into her first international meet, swimming against the
best swimmers in Australia. That’s going to be a little
intimidating.”
“The second
meet was an age-group
meet, against swimmers her own age, with a little more rest. I knew she
was going to do better,” Emmerson said.
Craig was in contact
with Emmerson
via email and the feedback from the coach, she said, was comforting.
“He seemed to
be all right with my
sort-of bad times,” Craig said, “so it was, Oh,
well, then.’ There
wasn’t as much pressure after that. It’s usually
when I’m more relaxed
that I swim better. If I focus really hard on something, I usually
don’t do it. I usually psyche myself out.”
Though the second meet
put Craig
against competitors her own age, restrictions made it more difficult
for foreign competitors to succeed. Only the top two swimmers from
outside the state were allowed to reach the final.
“In all the
events I was in, the
visitors were usually the top five spots,” Craig said,
“and I realized
that I had to go really fast in the morning to make it into the final.
I didn’t want to be in the third spot and be booted out.
“It was kind
of like a mind game in
the second heat, trying to figure out what time you needed to
do.”
Craig won the 200-metre
backstroke in
2 minutes 18.24 seconds, a personal best and about a two-second
improvement from the time she posted at the Commonwealth Games trials
in Victoria in November. She also won the 100-metre backstroke, in
1:05.84, just off her personal best.
Craig is a newcomer to
the
Barracudas, but is familiar in eastern Ontario from her days with the
CFB Trenton Dolphins.
A Grade 11 student at
Prince Edward
Collegiate in Picton, Craig had been swimming with the Picton group of
the Dolphins but her coach there, Rob Beatty, moved to Ottawa so she
was going to join the Trenton group.
The Dolphins, however,
lost their
access to the pool on the base and the coach there, Kevin Anderson, was
going to consolidate the club in Picton. Then he got a job offer in
Calgary and chose instead to move there.
“I was, like,
Well, what am I
supposed to do?’” Craig said. “He said,
You can swim for Ernestown, or
you can come out to Calgary,’ so I was going to go out to
Calgary at
one point. Then I was going to move to Toronto and live with my uncle.
Then I decided to come here because it was so much easier.”
Emmerson said the first
thing he
noticed about Craig was her affinity for hard work.
“She actually
likes it,” he said.
“Some kids don’t mind working hard but she actually
looks forward to
working hard.
“It’s
just a total pleasure to coach
her. My first thought was coming from Picton every day,
that’s a long
drive, but she’s definitely committed. Practice this morning
was at 7
o’clock and she was the first swimmer here. I was here at
6:30 and she
was here around 6:35.
“She’s
always on time and ready to
go. A lot of kids want to be good but they’re just not
willing to do
that kind of work.”
Emmerson likened Craig
to another
Barracuda, Elizabeth Wycliffe. Wycliffe and Craig both reached the
final in the 200-metre backstroke at the Commonwealth trials.
“A reporter
was interviewing me and
asking me about Elizabeth while watching her swim and said, Is she
doing what these other kids can’t do?’ and I said,
No, she’s doing what
these other kids won’t do,’ and that’s
what Jessika’s doing. A lot of
kids at that level they’ll get here at five to the hour, they
won’t be
prepared, I mention it and it’s not a big deal.
“Jessika
won’t miss practice. If she
does I have to e-mail her a workout in Picton. She’ll do it
there. She
hasn’t missed a practice since she started. If
she’s missing one she’ll
tell me in advance and say, Can you send me a workout?’ and
she’ll do
the workout on her own.
“She’s
a very dedicated athlete.”
Craig’s next
major event will be the
Pan Pacific team trials in July. The time she swam in Australia,
Emmerson said, would place her among the top eight in Canada, overall,
and he says she has “nothing but potential.”
“The way her
attitude is, the way she
trains, her work ethic, she’s just going to keep
improving,” he said.
