A Tough Season: Post SAISA Swimming Competition

SAISA is an international sports competition between 10 different schools in (mostly) south Asia. For the SAISA Swimming competition this year 7 schools participated including;  The Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka (OSC), Lincoln School, Kathmandu Nepal (LS), The American School of Bombay, India (ASB), The American International School of Chennai, India (AISC), The American International School of Dhaka, Bangladesh (AISD), The American International School of Muscat, Oman (TAISM) and The American Community School in Amman, Jordan (ACS).

The team has been training since school started and everyone had put in extra hours to come to school in the morning for more sessions. This year we had a fairly new team compared to last year especially with a lot more younger and some not as experienced swimmers. Unfortunately, a few people on our team got sick a few days before the competition including myself. I’m pretty sure I got the flu going around, so I had a very soar throat and runny nose for the whole trip. This made me very exhausted and was unable to swim my 100% best. Even writing this (three days after the trip) I still have a dry cough left over.

Day 1 started with an early breakfast of eggs and bacon, then we headed to AISC for the opening ceremony. They made us all walk together as a team around the school and it was gorgeous. For my events, I had the 50m free and 100m backstroke both in the morning session. For context, every event has prelims (besides straight timed finals which are 200m or longer events) and from there, swimmers are ranked from fastest to slowest. The top 6 go to A finals where they will be on the podium whilst 7-12 are in B finals, still scoring points just not receiving a medal or ribbon. From my prelims I got into the 50m freestyle B final and 100m backstroke A final. I placed 8th for my 50m freestyle (32.83) and 6th for my 100m back (1:25.65). The first day ended with the 200m freestyle relay were my team placed 6th on the podium (2:23.36).

Day 2 started with yet again eggs and bacon. Day 2 was my most packed day and yet it was my worst feeling day as well with my sickness. I had my 100IM, 100 freestyle and 200 backstroke. After doing both my 100IM and 100 freestyle, I felt exhausted, much more than before so I made a decision with my coaches not to swim my 200 backstroke. I’m very glad I made this decision because I was able to focus more on my 100s and put more energy into them. I got into B finals for both with the times being; 7th place for 100IM (1:25.32) and 10th place for 100 freestyle (1:16.63). This day was ended with the 200m medley relay which my team placed 6th (2:51.26).

Day 3 the last day was started with you guessed it, eggs and bacon. This was my most chill day since I only had 2 events, 50 butterfly and 200 IM. For my 50 fly I got into B finals and placed 7th (35.87). Sadly for my 200 IM (which is a timed final) I did an extra pull on my backstroke turn and got disqualified so I was unable to place. This day was ended with the 400 freestyle relay were my team came 6th (5:32.03) and the closing ceremony saying goodbye to all my friends from other schools.

Sadly OSC placed 7th overall but despite that I am beyond proud of each and everyone on the team. We had a very young and mostly inexperienced team this year and I am just happy everyone improved with their personal bests and enjoyed themselves. I’m excited for next year to continue growing and improving with this team.

Link to SAISA Event Website: https://www.aischennai.org/live-events