Heading into the summer, David Nicmans set a goal to make the provincial team and row for Team B.C. at the Canada Summer Games.
And while he did not technically reach that goal, he has done one better: Nicmans will row for Canada at the upcoming world junior (18 and under) national rowing championships in Lithuania.
"My goal was to make the provincial team this summer so to make it to the Canadian junior national team really took me by surprise," the 18-year-old Fort 91原创 teen explained.
He was chatting with The Times by phone from Peterborough, Ont.
Nicmans has been back east training with Rowing Canada since graduating from Maple Ridge's Meadowridge School in June.
He is scheduled to leave to leave for Trakai, Lithuania on July 29 for the championships which run Aug. 7 to 11.
Nicmans has his Canadian jersey but hadn't pulled it over his head just quite yet.
"It hasn't dawned on me quite yet (that I am representing my country) but I am proud," he said.
And while the 18-year-old only took up the sport two years ago, the idea has been in his head since 2008 when Canada won gold at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
He first thought about rowing at the suggestion of his mother, Alda, who thought it might be a good fit for Nicmans.
"It was always in the back of my mind since then," he said.
Basketball had always been his sport, having played the game since he was seven years old. But by the time Nicmans got to Grade 11, he had lost his passion for the game.
So he tried a Learn to Row program through the Fort 91原创 Rowing Club and it stuck.
He switched to the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club a short time later, and then in June he attended a national junior team selection camp held by Rowing Canada in Welland, Ont.
"Through the process of selections, he just rose to the top," said Carol Love, who was part of the selection committee for Rowing Canada as well as their junior national team coach for the male scullers.
She has been coaching Nicmans and the rest of the junior national team since they arrived in Ontario in late June.
"We are trying to identify the new talent in Canada and develop these young athletes and give them an opportunity to race against the world," Love said.
"(They) will get a taste of how fast the world is at the junior championships.
"To move forward, it requires a really strong work ethic and a desire and passion for the sport."
And Nicmans hopes that this is just the beginning with a goal of one day representing Canada on the national team and compete at the Olympics.
He figures the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro are a longshot but feels 2020 is definitely a possibility.
With that goal in sight, it makes all the sacrifices worthwhile.
"Being away (all summer) is tough because I do get quite homesick," Nicmans said. "But I am basically spending the summer doing what I love. I am pretty happy right now."
Nicmans will attend the University of Victoria in the fall, where he will train with the Vikes rowing team.
And that should continue his development.
"It is traditionally a very strong program," Love said.
"This is really just the beginning. This is a sport which takes many years to develop an athlete."
