Marlin Blues keen to improve ranking
The Marlin Blues Swimming Club aims to improve their overall ranking in the 2019 Short Course Age Group Nationals which starts today at the Damodar Aquatic Centre.
The Suva club was formed in January with 40 swimmers and now the membership has increased to 70.
Head coach Caroline Puamau said preparations were on track for the swimmers as she is looking forward to a great three-day of competition.
“Our club just started early this year and it’s a very encouraging seeing the progress that we’ve made in such a short span of time,” Puamau said
“It is a great achievement for us to have managed to get 35 of our swimmers qualifying to compete in the Long Course Age Group Nationals in May and then 50 swimmers competing in the Short Course Nationals. “We are also the youngest team participating and have field in swimmers ranging from 8-17 years old.
“With regards to our preparations, we’ve been training all throughout the year with eight pool sessions a week.
“We hope with the amount of effort put in by the two coaches in preparing these swimmers will produce positive results for the club as we want to improve our overall ranking.
“The support that we have had been receiving from our parents have been overwhelming and we are grateful for that.” Meanwhile, Fiji Swimming Association president Ben Rova said day one of the competition went on as scheduled with some impressive performances from defending champions Barracuda.
“It was a very encouraging to see clubs who have turned out in numbers and qualifying under some considerable tough qualifying times to be at this year’s Short Course Age Group Nationals,” Rova said
“This year we are proud to have 234 athletes to this year’s Nationals who are representing 9 swimming clubs from Suva, Nadi and Lautoka.
“We were blessed to have a favorable weather condition to host this event where a good/ positive turnout by spectators and supporters.
“There were some impressive performances from various clubs as well as some national records broken to.
“We look forward to an exciting two more remaining days for our swimmers and make a as it’s also the last competition with the final chance to compete in this age category in the Fiji Swimming calendar competition.”
The Day 1 results was released late last night. The competition continues today