We wanted to give our young swimmers a taste of competition with new faces in a new environment, with aims to developing them and bettering their personal best times. Due to various reasons, our club went with a diminished team of 5 swimmers, as opposed to our initial entry of 16 swimmers. Md Aiman Hj Md Effendy, Andrew Mead, and Simon Mead will be swimming in the “Boys 8 & Under” events while Nathan Lim and Md Akmal Hj Md Effendy will be competing in the “Boys 9 – 10” category.
DAY ONE OF COMPETITION
The day started early with breakfast at 6.30am in the manager’s quarters before heading off to the pool. Prior to the warm-up, the team managed to take a group photo in the scorching sun, which lasted throughout the entire day. Our swimmers will go home with goggle and swimwear tan lines for souvenirs...
Nathan and Simon were in the first event of the day, the 100m Freestyle. Simon swam in the opening swim of competition and did well to control his nerves, with the help of “scissors, paper, stone”, thumb war and interesting characters to distract him.
There were a number of events before our next race. So there was time for play in the children’s pool.
Even had time to present a few medals to some of the winners.
While waiting for your next event in the marshal area, note to all swimmers with milk teeth, don’t play with a loose tooth less than six events prior to your swim…
Nevertheless, Akmal made the swim and finished the 50m Breaststroke with one less tooth and in good time despite some blood loss...
After some cool down in the children's pool, we all went back to the hotel for some lunch and rest.
In the afternoon, Simon was the only entry and, after a heartbreaking technical goggle difficulty during the Breaststroke start, he was psyching himself up to do well in the 50m Butterfly. He swam the event in fine form finishing under the 1-minute mark and coming in seventh overall.
By the end the day, the kids were left exhausted and looking forward to the next day of competition.
DAY TWO
The day began with the same routine but slightly earlier as requested during the manager’s meeting because the teams from KK teams had to catch a flight back. Today the weather was gloomy with some rain.
One of the day’s difficulty…getting a nice group photo together.
Aiman is the new addition to today’s competition having arrived yesterday afternoon with his parents. He was also in the first race of the day, the 50m Backstroke, with Andrew.
Wasn’t afraid to taunt the other swimmers…
…despite being one of the smallest swimmers…the diving block was almost taller than him.
Today, the kids were more relaxed...
...compared to Day 1
The 50m Freestyle – Our final event. We finished with good starts and, more importantly, all our swimmers recorded personal best times. Looking forward to more future meets and definitely better times (personal bests).
A very big thank you to all the parents for your support and help throughout the Meet. We couldn’t have done it without you...
