Turkish National Championships 2010

As well as sending seven swimmers to the ASA national championships, City of Canterbury was also represented - by Ege Sever (16) - at the Turkish nationals championships, held in Istanbul on 20-24 July.

It was decided by the officials that the event should take place in an outdoor pool for this year. Although there were many clubs competing some individual entries were accepted if the swimmer reached the entry standard. Ege Sever was one of the swimmers to qualify individually which was outstanding. Ege arrived to Istanbul a day before the event started. This gave him a chance to train in the pool and work on his turns and dives.

On the first day of the competition Ege had only one event to do, the 100m fly. He produced an excellent swim getting a time of 1:03.59, a long course PB by over a second. He just failed to qualify for the final, coming 11th in his age group.

The second day started better for Ege as he got to see many of his old friends also competing in the competition. He managed another excellent swim in the 100m breaststroke, getting a time of 1:14.08 that put him 10th place in his age group.

The next day he did not have an event so he decided to stay at home and rest for his last race and the 200 IM where he was hoping for a good result. He gave it his best shot getting a time of 2:20.30. This was also another PB for him, which put him third in the rankings.

Unfortunately the judges decided that Ege did not touch the wall with both hands on a turn which resulted in him getting disqualified. Ege was sure he had touched properly but the referee's decision had to be accepted.

Ege produced three excellent swims and three PBs. Most importantly, he represented the City of Canterbury Swimming Club successfully in the Turkish nationals. Hopefully next year will turn out even better and he could bring back a medal to Canterbury!

[Many thanks to Bora Sever for sending in this report.]