With a good dose of nervousness mingled with excitement, Trinity
was looking forward to her third swim meet at the local swimming complex.
Her first two swim meets were a year ago when her strokes were still
unrefined and, endurance and speed a work in progress.
Now a year later and at silver level in the UK STA advanced
swimming series program, her strokes are vastly improved along with her
endurance. Speed continues to be a work in progress but she is only seven
years old training once a week.
The race was held at the Bukit Batok Swimming Complex and Trinity
was registered to compete in 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle categories.
Once we arrived and familiarised ourselves with the venue, Trini
toddled off with her coach, Justin Chua and his other students for a warm-up
session. Justin has been Trini's coach for three years, ever since she
started swim classes. They have a terrific working relationship and
whilst Justin is tough on his students, he's also fair and personable with
them.
As Trini prepped herself for the 50m breaststroke, I reiterated
which stroke she had to do because in her previous races she started with
freestyle first.
Once the gun went off, Trini dropped in the pool and took off
freestyle to my horror. Fortunately she was in the first lane with Justin
and I near enough to draw her attention and get her to change her stroke.
Technically she should have been disqualified, however, as an amateur
event designed to expose and encourage kids to compete the judges let it go and
Trini completed her competition coming out 2nd in her age category. Poor
kid when she got out of the pool she was mortified but a silver medal and
professional pics moved her beyond it to then prepare for the next race.
Whilst anticipating a half hour break, as per schedule, the event
was moving quickly and it was barely 10 minutes before Trini had to prep for
the next race.
Double reinforcing that she was doing freestyle this time, as the
gun went off so did she. Freestyle in full swing both Justin and I
realised that Trini was making such headway in the pool that if she kept her
game on she would easily place first. In typical coach and mama style the
vocals were kicking in screaming and shouting words of encouragement to keep
pushing. I'm sure we were heard outside the complex.
Throughout it all my heartbeat was so high, I could hear it
drumming in my ears. My anxiety levels went through the roof and it was
the most exciting moment when she surfaced out of the pool and I was able to
tell her she came in first. Shortly after she was presented with her gold
medal. The excitement and euphoria was amplified and we floated on this
feeling for the rest of the day.
This was our first experience in competition with Trini placing
and it was an unbelievable feeling for me as her parent to be part of her
success.
It is unlikely Trini will ever take swimming to a professional
level as her interests lie in gymnastics and kung fu but if she never does
anything else in competitive swimming we will have this extraordinary
experience as a whole family.
With a heartfelt thanks to coach Justin, for all of his hard work
and patience for developing Trini's skills. He's earned these medals just
as much as Trini.
And congratulations to my little girl for such an amazing effort
and memorable day.
Cheers
