Improvement from year to year, season to season, is the most important thing in sports, especially for young athletes. Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, 19, is following that path to near perfection as he continued his rise to the Paralympics next summer in Paris by claiming gold as the 2023 world Para swimming championships began in Manchester, England.
The Islander was close with two silver medals at the last world championships before becoming champion in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. Bennett followed up that gold from Birmingham last summer, in the men’s S14 200-metre freestyle, with his first career world championship gold medal this week at Manchester.
Bennett touched in one minute, 54.75 seconds, a hairsbreadth ahead of silver-medallist William Ellard of Great Britain (1:54.79), in the taut S14 200 freestyle final. Bronze-medallist Jack Ireland of Australia clocked 1:55.38.
“This was the goal. I felt 10 times more ready than last year,” said Bennett, of his silver medal in the event at the 2022 Para worlds in Madeira, Portugal.
“I held back the first 100 because I knew my top opponents go out hard. I was able to hold back and push myself forward to the end. It just feels amazing,” added Bennett, in a statement.
Bennett was 12th on Tuesday in the S14 100 backstroke, which is a minor event for him. He goes for gold in the men’s 100-metre freestyle S-14 later in the week.
“This is paving the way to Paris 2024 [Paralympics],” he told the sa国际传媒 in Birmingham, while sending a shout out to his swimming teammates in the Ravensong Aquatic Club in Qualicum Beach: “So many people have supported me back home and that means the world to me.”
Bennett began competitive swimming in Qualicum Beach under coach Mike Thompson and is coached now by sister Haley Bennett, a former swimmer.
“It’s great to have someone you truly care about coach you, and who in turn, truly cares about you,” he has said.
“There is still a brother-sister dynamic between us, but in the pool, it is swimmer-coach.”
Bennett’s was among four gold medals won by Canadian swimmers over the first two days of the world Para championships. The other two Canadian medals have been bronze.
That follows the six medals won by sa国际传媒, including two golds by teen sensation Summer McIntosh, at the just-concluded world aquatics championships held in Fukuoka, Japan.
The world Para swim championships run to Sunday.
