Swimmers will need to improve their times as Fiji Swimming had their first competition of the year with the Long Course Grand Prix 1 at the Damodar City Aquatic Centre, Suva yesterday.

Fiji Swimming media liaison officer Michelle McGowan said with the upcoming national competitions, swimmers need to work on their times to qualify for the event.

“The main aim for the swimmers in this Long Course competition is for them to reduce their time so that they make qualifying times to take part in the nationals, which will be in the middle of the year,” she said.

“The swimmers will be working really hard this year to make the development squads, the silver and gold squads and the elite squads.

“The good thing about the different squad is that it has been a sort of motivation for the swimmers to train harder and become better to make it into those squads.

“This is the first competition for the year so the children are not as fit as they would have been at the end of the swimming year but they are doing well.

“We have a total of 10 clubs taking part and the two biggest clubs are Barracuda and Dolphins who tend to dominate but this year it is a challenge for the other clubs to come up.

“So it is really the swimmers, who need to train hard and improve their times and also the clubs as a whole to improve and with the start of the Long Course, things are coming together slowly for them.”

Edited by Osea Bola

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