A larger than usual group of athletes, 15, and four coaches-chaperones, made their way to the Berlin International Swim Meeting 2010 on 4-7 March. This widely respected competition regularly sees European and world records broken during its run and hosts such stars as the Italian, the Polish and the Russian National Swim Teams. With 1183 athletes in attendance this year, the competition is one of the largest and fastest swim meets in Europe.

We took a larger group this year specifically so our young team could experience a meet of this sort and learn what the broader world of swimming, and swimming fast, was all about. Athletes get very stale and complacent when they only compete against known names. There, in Berlin, a city of some 9 million people, our swimmers got to see some of the best swimmers in the world almost in their own back yards.

Our trip started off in the normal way… with a huge delay by DSB! This made us over 3 hours late getting to our hotel and you would think the swimmers would be dead tired and ready for bed, right? No way! Most of them were full of life and ready to burn it off! Too bad we didn’t have a pool close, as I figure a nice 10 x 200 Fly set would have taken care of that energy level. The hotel was very accommodating and between Malene and Jette, check-in was sorted out and we were still able to get some decent sleep before race day.

And right now, I want to give a HUGE thanks to Jette and Max! We would have been lost without them taking care of food, travel arrangements, chaperoning, and shopping trip! With all the work Malene did to set this up for us, and thanks to Malene for all that effort too, it needed competent hands and eyes on the site to make it all follow through. Thank you to all three parents!

Our swimmers handled the meet like young professionals. I was so incredibly proud of their public behaviour. I was even prouder of their degree of effort during their races. We saw many personal best times set in Berlin. It was so wonderful to watch all their hard work start to pay off. With over 70% of all swims being best times, I think it is safe to say that our swimmers are pretty serious about their sport.

Special congratulations should go to two swimmers, Rasmus Koch and Jannie Brink, both of whom made finals in 50 metre Breastroke. Rasmus qualified for finals in 6th place and moved up to 5th place finishing. Jannie was not able to swim her final as that was Sunday evening and we were already on a train home by then, but she qualified in 5th place.

This meet was a solid effort all round and I am very happy we were able to attend it. It was great fun and I’m certain we all carry some special memories with us from it now!

Well done, everyone, and thank you to all!

Mvh,

Coach Michele