It is Day 1 of Swimming at the Samoa Aquatic Center. After months of preparations, it has come down to today. This has been a much anticipated date where our Fiji swimmers are excited to finally enter into the arena they have all been counting down to. They enter the competition with the mindset to ‘leave it all in the pool’. The excitement to match up against their competition can be nervewrecking, however the team is in high spirits, and ready to race hard.
From the heats session, we had the following swimmers progress into the finals:
• Taichi Vakasama 200 Breastroke • Moana Wind 200 Breastroke • Rosemarie Rova 800 Freestyle • Hansel McCaig 50 Butterfly • Epeli Rabua 50 Butterfly • Matelita Buadromo 50 Butterfly • Moana Wind 50 Butterfly • Hefu Erasito 200 Backstroke • Damien Kitione 200 Backstroke • Marion Kotobalavu 200 Backstroke
Fiji Swimming is honored to announce that the team has proudly won 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze this evening. Taichi Vakasama won a Gold in the 200 Breastroke with a time of 2.14.98. Moana Wind was the second Fiji swimmer in the pool this evening in the 200 Breastroke and swam into a Silver medal place with a time of 2.45.29. The third event in the pool featured Rosemarie Rova in the 800 Freestyle, who achieved a Bronze in a time of 10.03.00. Relays are underway soon, and the medals at the earlier part of this evening’s program have psyched up the team. The momentum has been set, and the team looks confident to maintain the game plan and that is to ‘leave it all in the pool’.
The Pacific Games timetable is similar to many other Olympic level swim championship programs. There is a morning heats session, with a break in between the day, before commencing with the finals in the evening. It is not only the racing, but it is the ability to recover in the short period of time, and jumping in again to race at maximum threshold. It is a grueling part of the sport, but a real part that also comes down to the level and quality of preparations. We commend the swimmers for their achievements and wish them the very best as they go into Day 2 of competition tomorrow.
