Stellar Performance from Marlins

Muscat – “The BSM Marlins Squad put in a stellar performance at the 3rd ECSSC Swim Meet in Doha,” laughs Coach David Rogers. “And that’s more than appropriate, as we were sponsored by Qatar Airways, the five star airline.”

The squad of 17, which was also backed by media company Orange Art, came away from the meet with a haul of ribbons, medals and trophies. “The results are excellent, especially given the top class quality of the field,” says Rogers. “In total we won 13 gold medals, 11 silver and 10 bronze. On top of that, five of our swimmers were awarded trophies for being placed in the top three overall in their age groups and that’s really something.”

The trophy winners were: Olena Kozak-King who came third overall in her group; Chloe Barrow and Brodie Smith who came second in their respective groups; and in the boys’ 13-14 age group Mohammed Khalil and Theodore Pender took first and second place.

“I won six golds and two silvers from my eight swims,” says a clearly delighted Mohammed Khalil. “These medals mean a lot to me because I trained very hard and competed in a tough field. That makes them very special.”

His team-mate Theodore Pender added: “The best thing about meets like this is that they really challenge you and that helps you develop as a swimmer. I learned a lot and that’s helping me focus my training for the next quarter.”

Seven year old Brodie Smith was competing at his first international meet and was not at all phased by the level of competition despite the fact that he had recently had a cast removed from his arm: “I just dived in when I heard the whistle and swam as hard as I could. I was determined to do well.”

But performance is not just measured in terms of medals and trophies says Coach Rogers: “The performance of our swimmers was stunning – 82% of all swims were personal bests and some of these improvements were dramatic. The competition certainly inspired everyone and this bodes very well for the future. What we’re looking at now is not so much who won what but what their times were and what we can do to improve on that. That’s the key to our continued success.”