Dani doing her thing!
AT THE CANADA GAMES TRIALS
Just thought I would pass along in one email the amazing weekend Danielle had. First Off I will let you know that she didn’t get named to the Canada Games Team – (she didn’t really expect to). She swam 5 Events in the Trials.
On Thursday afternoon she swam 50 Fly. She took a full second off her time – was 1st alternate for Finals and just missed her Club National time by 4 tenths of a second. (Her coach assures her she will get that time she needs at the next meet!). She was 1st alternate for Finals – she didn’t get to swim finals in this event but was extremely surprised by being so close!
On Friday she swam 100 fly. She took 4 seconds off her 100 fly! She ended up making finals in 7th spot. She had a strong swim in the finals. It was a very new experience for her as they march the swimmers on deck for the finals with loud music – each swimmer has a little kid with them carrying a basket for their warm up clothing and then they announce each swimmer before they get on the blocks. Of course if you know my shy little girl – how she looked forward to all that attention! J She handled it very well and walked on with her head held high and looking very confident – a force to be reckoned with! She had a great swim and ended up 8th. She also swam 200 Free on Friday. She took off I believe about 20 seconds on that swim. She didn’t make finals but had a great swim.
On Saturday she swam 200 fly. Normally at competitions where there is only 1 heat of swimmers in an event they aren’t required to swim it in Preliminaries and just swim it once in Finals. At this meet it was determined that all heats (except the fastest heat of 800 and 1500 free) would be swum in prelims regardless of the number of competitors and would then be swum again in Finals. This was new for her. She had a good swim in Preliminaries and went into Finals in 5th spot. The competition in Finals heated up significantly and Danielle once again swam very well and maintained her 5th place. She was very tired after this swim and ended up with a slight “panic” asthma attack that she was able to manage after a bit of mothering. She was feeling a lot of pressure to swim well as she was swimming against girls who are 3 or 4 years older and potentially 20 seconds faster as they compete at a national level.
On Sunday she had her 800 Free. She ended up in the fastest heat of 800 free and because of that didn’t have any swims in the morning session. Being the trooper that she is – she (on her own!) Asked her coach to deck enter her into the 200 IM in the Invitational meet that was being run concurrently with the trials. He did this for her and she took off 15 seconds from her best time! She then swam her 800 free in the evening – she took off 15 seconds and just missed her 15 & over A time by 7 seconds. (on a 10 minute swim!). her coach was very happy with this. She placed 7th over all in this event. I suspect that her coach is now planning a lot more distant swimming work for her.
Well done Dani from your very proud Granpa & Shirley!!!
MGM
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