Samantha shines at swim meet
The South Coast club has produced some excellent swimmers.
SAMANTHA Labuschagne qualified for senior nationals in 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, as well as for the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.
These nationals doubled up as Olympic trials as it is an Olympic year.
This meant that all South African swimmers in the country and abroad had to attend this event and use it as a qualifying event, which in turn made this meet a very high level of racing.
This meet is the highest an athlete can compete at in South Africa and it is an open event so all ages compete against each other.
Youth nationals ran at the same time and is a level below senior nationals.
Michelle Kretzschmar qualified for the first time to swim in youth nationals in the 100m backstroke and she entered the 50m and 200m backstroke, too.
To make it to the finals, the top 10 swimmers in the country, you have to compete in the heats and semi-finals before making finals.
So, to race in finals you had to swim the race three times. This can be quite a tiring endeavor when you are racing six events.
Samantha made three finals – in the 50m and 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle events.
She then placed ninth in the 50m backstroke and seventh in the 100m backstroke and tenth in the 100m freestyle. That is her ranking in the entire country per event.
Sam was then selected to race in four provincial relays and her team won gold in the women’s 4×100 freestyle, mixed 4×100 freestyle, women’s 4x50m freestyle relay and a bronze in the mixed 4×100 medley relay.
Michelle, meanwhile, had three good swims but was unable to improve on her times.
However, to swim at this level (and for the first time) was an achievement in itself.
Next year will be an awesome meet for her, having experienced it all before.
This was a great experience for both Blue Ocean Aquatics swimmers and members look forward to seeing what they can achieve next season.
Coach Mandy Koegelenberg was exceptionally proud of their achievements.
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