Singapore Nationals

Today was the day that Caroline and I competed in the Singapore Swimming National Championships.

We met our coach at the train station at 7 AM, and he drove us the rest of the way to the meet. The pool was at the Singapore Sports School in Woodlands, Singapore. The pool was in an open-air facility, with a roof but no walls. It was nice. The water was actually cool instead of sweltering hot, and there was a ceiling, so I was happy! No more crooked backstroke! The competition pool had 10 lanes. and lanes 4 and 5 had yellow lanes ropes while the rest of the lanes had blue lane ropes. It was just like the Olympics where the two middle lanes are different colors! Fun! I got to race in the special colored lanes too!

Since there weren't many heats of the events this morning, the meet was not as rushed as in the US. We had to go to a holding area before our event, and then each heat would walk out together to the blocks. When the heat before mine finished the race, they were all given time to swim to the side to get out of the pool, and gather their things. Then, my heat would walk out on deck, stretch and what not, and then begin the race. It was a very chill and relaxing environment. In fact, during warm-up they played a boy band CD that sounded a lot like The Backstreet Boys and N'Sync back in the day. It was not very good pump up music. 

Also, they played music while the heats were swimming! They would start the heat, and as soon as they hit the water, they would turn on a song! I mean, it was nice for the 1500, but they even did it for the short 50 races! I asked the coach why, and he said they started playing music during the races because that's what was done during the World Cup this past year. Interesting. Oh and the deck near the pool side is completely roped off during the meet. Not even the coaches are allowed to stand by the side of the pool. They had to sit about 15 feet away. None of the teams cheered during prelims either. I really got the sense that you have to race all by yourself, without the yelling support of your teammates or the coaches whistled and hand waving. The meet is so quiet!

So this morning, I swam the 100 free first and went 1:03.38, which is only 0.16 seconds slower than my best time. I guess I can be happy with that, especially because I haven't been getting the kind of training I usually do, and I'm not tapered. I ended up placing 18th overall, missing the Consolation Final heat by two swimmers. I swam the 200 backstroke immediately afterward. Because there were only 13 girls entered in the event, only the top 8 make it back to finals. I swam a best time of 2:28.83 in the morning, dropping 0.50 seconds from my previous best time and placing me second overall going into finals.

Caroline, who has been sick for the last 7 days, swam the 100 free in 1:05.10 and the 200 backstroke in 2:39. Her 200 backstroke was tied for 8th place, so she got to do a swim off at the end of the morning session. The winner of the swim off got to swim the event at finals. Caroline beat the girl by over 7 seconds, and swam a 2:37! 

Caroline and I went back to the dorms to rest before finals, and then headed back to the pool later in the evening to swim our 200 backstroke. Swimming finals at Singapore Nationals was so fun! The top three finishers received medals, and I was determined not to go home empty handed. Looking at results from last year, I knew I would have to swim a best time to medal, and I just wasn't sure if that would be possible without training and tapering as much as I have in the past.

For the 200 backstroke, since I was the final heat, we got to walk out to blocks! It was the first time I've ever gotten to walk out and put my clothes in the basket behind the blocks! haha and when my name was announced, the guy said "Kopacka Ryann"! Just as we were about to start the race, a huge group of my classmates showed up at the meet! It was so exciting to have them there!!! So the race began... and I got second overall! I'm the second fastest 200 backstroker in Singapore!!! So amazing! So much fun! I went a best time by almost two seconds, 2.27.03! I'm so thrilled! So then after the race, there was a medal ceremony where I got to stand on the podium and accept my silver medal. It was the first time that I've ever been on a podium! I've won medals before, but this was the first time for me that a ceremony and a podium was involved! It was exhilarating and made me love swimming even more! What an amazing experience!

After the meet, Caroline and I went to celebrate with a yummy meal from an American Grill called Swensen's.  We shared some mozzarella sticks, and I had some real spaghetti with meat sauce and the most incredible dessert ever- a scoop of chocolate ice cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge, caramel drizzle, slices of bananas, slices of strawberries, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry on top! Victory!

Official results from the meet are at http://www.swimming.org.sg/swmcompetition_local-2008_SNSC.html

I've also posted the site under my "Fun Links" list on the left side of the page. I only swam on Day One of the meet, prelims and finals.