2022 FINA World Championships Diary by Gary Francis "Gaz" - Competition Day Six
Competition Day Six
Hi Everyone,
Today could have been difficult for Team NZ as last night had seen incredible highs for the relay team and Lewis. There had been such a great buzz back at the hotel following the evening racing that the danger of the ‘morning after the Lord Mayor’s scenario’ was very real.
The coaching staff and the senior athletes did an excellent job of ensuring the team were still firmly fixed on the competition, and we saw two good swims from Michael Pickett and Helena Gasson in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly respectively to get the morning off to a solid, if not spectacular, start.
Eve's 800 Free
PB’s have been really hard to come by. It’s been a theme throughout the competition and apart from the obvious reasoning of disrupted seasons for athletes from all nations there is also the fact that it is a post-Olympic year, and a very unique and fatiguing Olympic year to boot. There have been a lot of injuries during the competition which may well be partly due to compromised preparations and overstrained bodies. But whatever the reasons, some athletes have been able to achieve outstanding performances and today we saw one of those from our own Eve Thomas in the 800m Freestyle. Qualifying 6th fastest in a PB for the 800m freestyle with an even split 8:27.82 (4:13.87, 4:13.95). Eve’s swim gave us our third individual finalist of the Championships and our fifth final in all. We still have some other opportunities to add to this, too.
Eve has worked really hard over the past two years at improving her skills around the wall and it’s starting to pay off. She has also learned far more about how to race and is now attacking the race much better, and still has her great engine to bring home the back half of the race, as today showed. Today’s race showed how much she has improved as a tactician, not allowing the race to get away from her early on and timing her finish really well to ensure qualification. This is yet another example of why our swimmers need much more quality racing experience, to actually learn how to race!
Tomorrow's Action
Tomorrow morning we’ll have Andrew Jeffcoat racing in the 50m Backstroke, Helena Gasson in the 50m Breaststroke and Chelsey Edwards finally getting a swim in the 50m Freestyle. The mixed Freestyle relay is going to be interesting. In 2019 three teams finished between 3:27.3 and 3:27.6, the faster of the three making the 8th spot for the final. If our team get their changeovers right they can also be around that time so they could be in with a chance to swim again in the evening.
How to Watch
You can watch all the action live via pay per view from FINA on Facebook Live. Or view live results for free on the official event website
Follow the Latest
Make sure you're following @swimming_nz on social media to keep to date with the latest athlete interviews, results and excitement from our Aquablacks team at the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships.
