The 6th round of the CMAS Finswimming World Cup was held on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 at the Centro Sportivo (outdoor) pool in Tenero. I did only participate on the 2nd day of competition on Saturday but did take on 4 race that same day.
With this being our “home” meet of the World Cup, our group was a bit larger than on the last trip to the WC stop in Aix en Provence. We actually had an official team and a tier two team with some of our young athletes giving them a chance to swim with and watch some of the world’s finest athletes.
I joined my team, the Dauphins Genève, during the 2nd session on Friday afternoon. With the competition already going I wasn’t able to get into the pool for an easy swim after the trip but I didn’t mind too much with this being my first outdoor experience this year. Instead, I took a seat on the stands and enjoyed the afternoon session.
During the two sessions on Saturday I had to take on my 4 races for the day. In the morning I competed in the 100m BF and the 100m NP. My other two race in the afternoon were the 200m BF and yet another 100m NP as the 2nd leg of the 4x100m relay.
In both of my BF races I had a good time but after all it’s different from traditional swimming and it took some time to get used to the knew feeling and position in the water. Anyway, there wasn’t much competition in those two races and I ranked high enough to get some valuable points for my team.
My 100m NP was only short after the 100m BF in the morning. Although I felt a bit tired, the race just before probably helped me to get a proper warm-up. And after my rather disappointing swim in the same race in Aix en Provence and during the Copa da Natal last year, I finally improved on my time and had a good race.
For the last race of the day and the meet, we had to team up with an athlete from SLRG Oberwallis to actually have a team. We also integrated one of our young swimmers and thus were not allowed to compete for the final ranking. Anyway, only short after my 200m BF race I had another good 100m NP to finish this round of the World Cup.
Please go to the official meet website for full results and links to newspaper articles as well as to some TV coverage on the World Cup in Tenero. You can also visit Ralph Heksch’s website where you find over 700 pictures taken during the meet to get some visual impressions.