Lets go for a swim

This mornings swim meet went swimmingly for a certain swimmer.

I managed to force myself out of my lovely warm bed at 5.30 and roused both girls and we headed out to the meet. It was still pretty chilly for us at that time of day and warm ups started at 7.30 so the coaches wasted no time getting them straight into the heated pool.

No, I do not know which one is Lily. She is one of the ones in black.

It all seemed rather chaotic with some many bodies warming up at the same time but they faired very well.

Immediately after warm up they got their instructions from the big boss man.

Listening intently

Last minute instructions before the race.

Well, I can't not post her photo too!

Lily swam four races today the 200m free, the 100m fly, the 50m breast and the 50m free. No wait let me rephrase that she should have swam 4 races and she should have swam the 50m, free but I'll get to that in a seccy. She did really really well and pardon me for a moment while I have a proud Mummy moment but even Coach Andrew commended her on swimming like a superstar. She did, she rocked that pool. (in 3 races)

In the 11 yr old group (she's only 10) her times are

200m free 2:52.52     needs        2:38.39 FGJO (Junior Olympics)
100m fly 1:40.15       needs        1:27.09 FGJO
50 m breast 49:02.    needs       43:49 FGJO
50m free    DQ            DQ doesn't mean Dairy Queen it means disqualified. OUCH.

I love seeing her on the diving block waiting for the whistle

First race of the day

I wonder what she is thinking cos that's a funny face.

breaststroke 

And last but not least, my favourite, fly.

So what happened with the 50m free? It was right behind the fly and she had minutes, just minutes as opposed to many many minutes and she rushed back to the "other" side and somehow got confused as to what heat they were on and what heat she was in and what lane she was in and the heat started and she I stood in front of it and the race began and her lane was empty. Urghhh. She went and told Coach Andrew, she didn't really want to she had a big old knot in her tummy. The talk before the meet was about getting it right. Ahem. But she made a mistake and owned it so he accepted it but told her once is all that it is allowed. Believe me if you know this kid that's all she will allow it too. He knows it too. Even with that SNAFU she still said it was her best meet yet and I think she is right it was pretty awesome. The next one is in
December and both girls are in it. Egads.

I found out a little while ago from the team Mum that Lily placed 6th overall in Fly! WTG Lilipop. Now Lily will tell you there were  42 swimmers and that means she beat one in every 7 swimmers. Why this is important I have no idea but if you are Lily you need the specifics. Crazy girl. ( Last night, Monday, Coach Vlad called me aside and told me he didn't realise Lily was only 10. Lily has made it into the advanced team 8 months early. He truly thought she was 11 that's howcome she was swimming out of her age group in the meet. THen I heard the words Mothers don't want to hear, Lily has potential as a swimmer. OH Gawd. This isn't Olympic standard stuff this is for High school and for college scholarships etc. Since Vlad saw her competitiveness come out this past weekend at the meet and now knows what she has hidden up her sleeve he is going to be pushing her hard. Poor kid! Who am I kidding, kidlet loves her some competition. The good thing about Flying Fish is Coach Andrew does not believe in swimming twice a day for kids of this age and level, he gets kids into the Regionals and Nationals with only training once a day and they have better times than the ones who swim morning, noon and night.)