Bennett and Nagy receives Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award

Headline News from Swimming Canada www.swimming.ca

VANCOUVER – National Swimming Centre coach Joszef Nagy and Victoria Academy of Swimming head coach Randy Bennett were amongst 46 of the best coaches in the country to be honoured with a Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award for 2009.   

These prestigious awards recognize coaches whose athletes excelled at various world championships and at the Special Olympics World Winter Games.

“The Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Awards are this country’s most important forum for coach recognition,” says John Bales, Chief Executive Officer, Coaching Association of Canada.

Jozsef Nagy has been coaching at the National Swimming Centre in Vancouver since 2006. Hungarian native Nagy has coached with the Canadian, American, Hungarian and Spanish national teams.

He most recently coached Annamay Pierse to three World Record performances in the 200m Breaststroke short course and long course. His star pupil also collect a silver medal at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.

Before coming to Canada, he also coached American superstar Mike Barrowman who broke world records six times between 1989 and 1992 in the 200 breaststroke. Since 2003 he was head coach at Honved Swim Club in Budapest.

“It’s great to see that our Canadian swim coaches get recognize for great performances,” said Pierre Lafontaine, CEO and National Coach for Swimming Canada. “A great coach-athlete tandem is key to great performances. Jozsef and Randy have done great things with their swimmers and we are proud to have him work and inspire our other coaches as we strive to become one of the top swimming nations.”

Randy Bennett is the head coach of the Victoria Academy of Swimming since 2008.

He was previously the director of Island Swimming and the head coach of VASC since 2002. Bennett has worked in a variety of coaching roles and positions and actually began his coaching career in Fort MacMurray, Alberta in 1982. Randy also spent 9 seasons coaching for the UBC dolphins with Tom Johnson.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bennett coached Ryan Cochrane to a bronze medal in the 1500 freestyle. In Rome for the 2009 World Championships, Bennett took on the role of head coach to a team that produced two silver medals and one bronze.

Over the years, Randy has had the pleasure of working with National Team Athletes such as Marianne Limpert and Mike Mintenko. Currently, he works directly with the Senior National Group which includes Ryan Cochrane, Rick Say, Matt Rose and Stefan Hirniak.

The awards will be presented during Petro-Canada Sport Leadership sportif 2009, scheduled to take place in Vancouver, November 12-15, 2009. The Sport Leadership Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday, November 13, 2009, at 6:30 pm at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Grand Ballroom.

For a full list of the Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Awards, log on to:  www.coach.ca