Geneva International Challenge - January 2018

 51^st Geneva International Challenge

At the end of January I travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to compete in the 51^st Geneva International Challenge.  The competition took place at Centre Sportif des Vernets and attracted swimmers from over 50 clubs from many nations including Israel, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and the UK, proving to be an extremely high-profile meet.  Swimming for my school, Mount Kelly, I competed in 7 events – 50m/100m/200m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke and 200m Individual Medley. 

In the heat of the 50m Breaststroke, I finished 6^th and qualified for the final, improving on both my heat time and position, finishing 3^rd and taking a bronze medal.  In the 100m Breaststroke, I successfully qualified fastest for the final, but even after having swam faster in the final, I was pipped into 2^nd position, taking the silver in a season’s long course best time.  In the 200m Breaststroke it was a similar story, after having qualified fastest for the final, I was once again touched into second position by the same swimmer, Sara Staudinger from SC Uster Wallisellen, therefore having to once again settle for the silver medal.

Having recently received the fabulous news that I had been selected to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Australia this April for the Isle of Man Team, I have been informed that although not a backstroke swimmer, I will be leading the team out on the backstroke leg of the 4x100m Medley Relay.  With this in mind, I decided to ‘test the water’ and see how my backstroke was looking; finishing 14^th overall, just 2 seconds slower than my personal best time, my school coach and I were extremely pleased with this result – one of my main aims over the coming weeks in preparation for the Games is to spend some extra time training on backstroke in order to be at my best in this event giving the team the best possible start in the relay.

In the 50m Butterfly, I finished 12^th, narrowly missing out on the final.   Having qualified 4^th fastest for the 200m Individual Medley final, I swam in the lane next to Italy’s Federica Pellegrini (the current 200m Freestyle World Record holder and Olympic gold medallist) – unfortunately, during the final my time was slightly slower than my heat, finishing 5^th overall.

During the competition, competing clubs accumulated points on all finalists and at the end of the meet, our team, Mount Kelly School were announced Top Visiting Club and received a well-earned trophy.

After a poor season in 2016/2017 through injury and illness, it was great to be back in the pool swimming on or around my personal best times again.  I feel that my determination and resilience to the hurdles I have faced over the last 12 months have made me much stronger mentally and physically.  My next competition will be in Edinburgh at the British Championships and Edinburgh International (combined) before heading off down under to the Commonwealth Games.