The team

Training

The training for SAISA swimming is the most physically exhausting out of all the SAISA sports I am a part of. We have three mandatory practices every week on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. As well as optional morning practices on Monday and Wednesday, of which I would go to once a week throughout the season. My CAS goal for SAISA swimming was to go to at least one morning practice every week and continue swimming during the October break. During the October break, I swam four times using the workouts that our coaches posted on ManageBac.

Competition

At 11:00pm on the 15th of October, the team piled into the bus to the Airport. I was a travel group leader of five younger teammates so the time spent in the Sri Lanka, Dehli, and Nepal airports was spent double-checking that they were all in my sights and I had all of the passports. It was a relief when I handed back all of the passports to the coaches once we got to Lincoln School. As soon as Talia and I’s host family took us home, we fell asleep for a couple hours, recovering from the long travel day.

Day 1:

We woke up early, had breakfast with our hosts, said goodbye to our host’s dogs, and left to the Lincoln School. After the opening ceremony and the warm-up, we started the races.

The Geckos at the opening ceremony. (Photo taken by Lincoln School Students)

I was in the first event of SAISA-the 50m freestyle prelims. I was happy with my race, I qualified for B finals and got a personal best of 33.98sec. My next race was the 200m breaststroke timed finals; again I was in the top 12 and got a personal best. After lunch and another warm-up, I was ready for the 50m freestyle finals. Even though I didn’t beat my prelim time, I still maintained my place. After watching the nail-biting 15-19 boys 50m free race, it was time for the 200m freestyle relay with Talia, Anargi, and Ashvini; we placed 4th and my split time was 33.60 sec, better than my personal best from the freestyle prelims!

Cheering on the team! (Photo taken by Hannah Hettiaratchi)

Day 2:

In the morning session of Day 2, I had the 100m butterfly timed finals and the 100m IM prelims. In 100m fly I placed 10th and got a new personal best of 1:29.91. My 100 IM was not as successful, I placed 13th in the prelims, barely missing the cut off for the finals. However, I still did improve my time to 1:29.17. The last race of the day was the 200 Medley relay, in which we placed 4th. I swam butterfly and my split time was 37.79. After the final relays, we had time to eat and socialize with the other teams.

(Photo taken by Hannah Hettiaratchi)

Day 3:

The last day of SAISA was definitely my most challenging day because I had six races and one of them is the most difficult race at SAISA-the 200IM. The day started with the 50m butterfly prelims, I made it into the B finals and improved my time from the medley relay the day before to 37.27. Right after I finished 50 fly, I had to start preparing for my next race, 100m breaststroke prelims. I again made it into the B finals and I got a new PB. After the 100 Breast, I had some time to rest before the 200m IM. After the 200m IM, I was exhausted but I was happy with the race. By the time I was called for marshaling for the 50m fly finals, my legs were still shaking and I hadn’t returned to my resting heart rate. The same thing happened when I was called for my next race, the 100m breaststroke. In both, the 50m fly and the 100m breast, I did not beat my PB from the prelims but I was able to maintain my place. Then it was time for my last race of SAISA–the 400m freestyle relay. We placed 4th and my split was 1:15.87. After the incredibly close 15-19 boys 400 freestyle relay, it was time to learn the total team standings. In the morning we were placed 4th right behind Lincoln School, and throughout the afternoon session, we closely monitored the number of points Lincoln got versus us, but we were not able to predict our final place. The award ceremony started with the announcing of the age group places; we got 1st place in the girls 10-12 age group and in the 15-19 boys age group. In the end, we were able to scrape past Lincoln School by a mere 11.5 points, and got third place overall!

The Geckos collecting 3rd Place! (Photo taken by Lincoln School Students)

The 15-19 team visiting the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu before flying back to Colombo.

Links: 

SAISA Swimming Video 2019

The video created by Lincoln School Students for SAISA swimming.

Watch the Games

Link to the live streams