Seth Cornish Wins First Swimming Competition

Seven-year old Seth Cornish was on cloud nine after winning his first national swimming event in the 50m backstroke event during the 2019 Long Course Grand Prix 3 at the Damodar City Aquatic Centre, Suva yesterday.

The Savusavu native who swam for Nadi-based club Mako won the 50m backstroke heat with a time of 54.03sec.

“This is my first swimming competition and I’m happy to win my first and only event,” he said.

“It feels so good and swimming back­stroke is fun and I’ll continue swimming as this is my favourite sport.”

The Year 3 student of Nadi Christian Community School aims to compete in various events in future and also don the national jumper.

“My aim now is to continue with my training and compete in other events and represent Fiji in future. Swimming for Fiji is my biggest target now and I hope to do Fiji proud,” he said.

QUALIFYING TIMES

This will be the fifth competition for 2019 and this has been strategically positioned to provide more race experience for our swimmers and our coaches to see the effec­tiveness of their preparations and training regimes.

Swimmers who are at this competition are as young as six years old, as well as Pacific Games provisional squad and even representatives in the Masters division.

Fiji Swimming Association general man­ager David Dugucanavanua said; “We are proud to see the growth in our federation across the different age categories and look forward to seeing more representation in the near future with the growing numbers that are training in clubs.

“We have a total of 264 swimmers racing today and they represent clubs from across Suva, Nadi and Lautoka. For our Pacific Games provisional squad, this is leading up to their final selection which is happen­ing over the Easter long weekend.

“Currently, we have got a few swimmers who have met the qualifying times (QTs). This is one of the competitions where they are swimming and are aiming to achieve the QTs.”

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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