⚠️ Extremely Long Post⚠️ (not as long as the competition 🤦) Sorry not sorry Over the last 5 days, I've been racing at the Welsh Summer Nationals. I entered 7 races and was then selected for a relay, but ended up swimming 14 races due to finals qualifications. Day 1: 200 free Heats - I was a little nervous before this but mainly because it was the first race, it went ok and I swam a 2:19.33. This was 2 seconds off my best, but was a solid first swim and got me into the final. Final - I swam a 2:17.28, which was a pb by 0.02. Still a pb though! I raced it well, and went out harder than I usually would (1:06.5). This was better than almost even splitting which is my usual performance 🤦 50 breast Heats - I went straight from 200 free cool down to 50 breast marshalling so was living in the chaos. I wasn't nervous for this, and swam a 37.40, a pb by 0.03 from when I was absolutely on fire at 13. Final - Swam a 37.29, another 0.11 off of my time 😊 In both heats and finals, I counted my strokes and compared it to my 50 breast swims at winter nationals. I swam both races in a quicker time with less strokes, which is a positive (my stroke has become more efficient). Day 2: 200 breast Heats - I was really nervous before this, but didn't have a panic attack which is a big positive. I kept my stroke technique, and swam a seasons best (2:58.55). Final - I was nowhere near as nervous before the final. I swam it 6 milliseconds slower (2:58.61), but I raced it much better, splitting my first 100 2 seconds quicker than in the heat. I died on the last 50 though which is a shame, because I was on track for about a 2:55 😔 Still happy though! Day 3: 200 IM Heats - A bit nervous before this, but once again no panic attack. My backstroke split wasn't very good, but my fly was decent and my breast and free were good. Made up ground on the rest of my heat. Swam a 2:40.46. Final - Not as nervous, and swam a 2:38.95. My fly and back split was better, and my breast and free were the same. This still wasn't a pb, but I was content anyway.

Just wanted to put it out there for @David Karasek and @Yul Münger that it’s official that after the swimming camp in Tene, I’ll be moving to a new club. This club is basically very close to my previous club, as we share the same pool and used to collab in some competitions together, including trainings. Why I made this decision is because I haven’t been very included with my teammates, many don’t even come anymore and there are more unserious than serious, it’s more like me, my friend, and some other guy who’s actually taking swimming seriously… so I wanted to grow the circle a bit more. I know some girls and boys from the club I’m going to move in (It’s called Ármann) and I really like how everybody motivates everybody. I’ll finally (I hope) have a good circle of competitive swimmers who want more in swimming. Not only that, their trainings are very good, I really like them. I sometimes had the chance to swim in their trainings as our coach was coming late or some emergency came up, and that the other club coach took us in. It’s similar to what we did in the last camp, and it’s great because it means that I’ll keep doing what I was doing in camp in Iceland, because to be honest with you, my coach would have had some other kinds of trainings, way off from what I did in camp last year. I’m going to have to tell my coach about the decision and I am hoping that he’ll approve (and I don’t think that would be a problem because he had done the same thing at this age, so). Most nervous is about how im going to tell my friend, Emily, because she’s going to be the only serious girl there and she’ll be alone without me to push her. I have asked her many times about changing clubs, but she’s certain that she will never change (we’ll see 🤷‍♀️). It’s not like she alone ALONE, like there are other girls there too but they don’t take swimming easily, so I’ll have to call her and tell her the decision, because I’d tell her in person but I’m not in Iceland right now. I hope she understands…

Last week I competed at the Aquatics Great Britain Championships in Sheffield. Most races went pretty well. I won 7 medals, including 5 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze. I got Gold in the 50 free (23.93), 50 bk (26.69), 100 bk (57.69), 100 fly (56.87) and 2 IM (2.07.3). 1 silver in the 100 free (52.57); 1 bronze in 50 brst (30.26) and came 7th in the 4IM (4.49.44). All were PBs except for the 4IM and 50 BRST.

Last year I couldn’t go to regionals because I was sick, so this time I was very excited. I started Friday with 400free, I just wanted to finish first and beat a long time concurrent, that’s why I started the race very fast to avoid that he goes in front of me. I finished 5 seconds over my pb (4:19) and finished first. Saturday I swam first 200fly, I should start working on my strength and swim fly in practice because the last 50 I just tried to survive and lost many seconds, but I was still first with a time of 2:20 and an 8 sec pb. After that, I started for 200IM, I just need to work on backstroke because I lost much time, and I was second with a time of 2:18 and 1 sec pb. Then 100 free, I swam my pb time (58sec), I should find an adapted warm up. And the last race of the day was 200 breaststroke, I felt the fatigue in my muscles and after the race at cool down I had a cramp. The end time was again my old pb 2:39 Last race day, I waited 3 hours between warm up and 200 backstroke, and as said I need to work backstroke because the time was 3 sec over pb (2:25), after that, I needed to directly go for 100 fly, feelings were great but my muscles were at the end. Swam a 1 sec pb, 1:05. The last start was 200 free, I was placed 2nd with 0.2 sec to the first and swam 1 sec over pb, 2:01.4 I will need to work on backstroke technique and adapt my warm up for 100s and breaststroke I’ve won 1 bronze, 4 silver and 2 gold medals

Qualified for Italian Championship in Rome with 200 Breaststroke (2.42.5)