Personal bests during first day of swimming championship

Today Ben Smith, National Coach made the following announcement.

This morning (Monday July 1st) was the first day of competition for the CCCAN swimming championships at the Maria Del Milagro Paris pool in Sabana Costa Rica.  The pool is an 8 lane 50 meter pool with a separate warm up pool.  With 19 countries participating from the Caribbean, Central America and South America the competition was strong.

We started off with Shannon Hassell in the 100 back where she swam 1:10.92 which dropped 2 seconds off her personal best time and has her placed 3rd for tonight’s finals. Jesse Washington was next up in the 100 back where he swam 1:07.63 to drop 2 seconds off his PB and put him into the finals. Ashley Irby rounded out the backstroke with a swim of 1:20.70 which is just off from her PB she set last week at Coral Springs.  This is the first experience at this level of competition for Ashley and she will learn a lot from her races as well as from her teammates who are encouraging her all the time.

Many of the distance events went straight to finals which meant that Shannon was back on the blocks quickly to swim her 800 free.  She had a good swim and finished just outside personal best time. Stephanie Myles will still tonight in the 800 free final. Lisa Blackburn had her 100 breast go through to finals which put Andrew on the block in his 100 breast.  He had a good swim considering this was an event I added to give him experience in the competition as this is his first time representing Bermuda at any level.

Shannon had her 3rd event of the day in the 50 free where she swam a personal best time.  She will be able to focus completely on her 100 back tonight.  The clock stopped working during the 50’s which meant that after each splash and dash you had to wonder who made it through to the finals.  Jesse had a strong swim and looked much better off the block which has been his weakness.  The times have not been posted but he will be in the finals for tonight.  His goal is to get his qualifying time for next summer’s Youth Olympic Games which will mean lowering his own record.  Ashley Irby finished the 50’s for the day with a strong swim that may not get her back for the finals but was another opportunity to learn how to improve.

 The morning session finished for us with the 200 IM’s.  Lisa and Stephanie both cruised into the finals comfortably and will be looking to swim fast tonight.  Andrew swimming another off event did well in his IM and is feeling good about his upcoming events.