New swimmers – Rova: I’ve seen consistency in performance

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Ateca Leca competes in the mixed 800meters freestyle during the Fiji Swimmming Long Course competition at the Damodar Aquatic Centre yesterday. Picture: JONA KONATACI

SWIMMING Fiji is unveiling a new generation of talented swimmers, thanks to the weekly competitions taking place at the Damodar City Aquatic Centre in Suva.

SF president Ben Rova said a lot of young swimmers had been testing the waters in trying to excel in the sport.

“For today, we are having the final of our mini meet as we lead up to the age group nationals and the open nationals next month,” Rova said.

He said the association had been blessed with the wave of interest that had allowed officials to identify talents that could be developed for national duties in the future.

“After this weekend, we will have a grand prix competition and that will be the last of all our preliminary competitions. That will be the qualifier for age group nationals and the most important one which is the Swimming Fiji Open Nationals on April 25.”

He said the event would also determine who would meet the qualification time for the Olympics.

“As we progressed, we are starting to see some good performances coming through, especially from our younger swimmers.

“For the older ones, there is one or two who are doing exceptionally well, but right now we are not expecting to see them with outstanding times.

“They have a set program that they are training on and have not tapered yet to be fully fit for the all important open nationals.

“If we see some consistency in performance by improving some seasonal times, that shoes that they were on track with some good times.

“The young ones had been showing some outstanding performances as they are all trying to make it into the Fiji team training squad.

“Today’s event will be very short. It is targeted at specialised events such as 200 metres, the 400m individual medley, the 1500m and probably the 50m freestyle.

“It is not a full-on program, but it is to focus on hard strokes in specialised events.” Today’s mini meet is expected to start mid-morning.

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