Monday 13 May 2013

The Brunei 7-9 Swimming Championship 2013

While Nathan participated in a bike race, and Lucas was looked after at a friends house, Linnea and I traveled back down to Mumong (KB) early yesterday morning. It was time again for the Brunei 7-9 Swimming Championship that was supposed to take part back in April, but got canceled because of the very heavy rain.

Linnea herself actually wasn't fussed either way about going to this competition, but I really wanted her to come. I wanted her to have a good experience, since her first competition experience last year got the better of her.

The JIS Team competed against 12 other teams from Brunei and Miri (in Malaysia) and came 2nd with a total medal tally of 6 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze.
Not really thanks to Linnea though, bless her... she never really stood a chance at any medals. Competition was not only tough, but there was 12 girls in each of her races. She was also the only girl in her year group that had to swim with the 8 year olds - since the children gets split into events according to calendar year, and she was the only one turning 8 this year.

Here Linnea is waiting her turn for the first race, backstroke. She is on the chair at the far right, in an orange swim cap:


More waiting, nearly time to race:


- "On your marks"...

 

All swimmers are thrown into combined heats during these competitions, only divided by gender - which made it hard to explain why her friend in the lane next to her placed and got a medal in one of the events, even though Linnea beat her in that particular race... Ah well, luckily Linnea is not a girl that dwells on such things for long.

Getting ready for 25m breaststroke. Second from the right in an orange cap:


We did celebrate her own personal wins though. In two of her races she improved on her own times: the 25m freestyle improved by 1 second and the 25m backstroke improved by 8 seconds! Getting a PB and "beating yourself" is important too!

Here she is setting off for the 25m freestyle:


She is doing swimming as an ASA this term, and really seems to enjoy it, so maybe with some more practice, she will even get that medal in the next competition!

No comments: