Two Samoa Swimmers, 12 year old Junior National Swimmer, Palepua Afoa and National Representative Swimmer, Thomas Morriss, gained impressive results at the Hamilton Aquatics & Fairfield Competition over the past weekend.
Palepua Afoa, a dedicated swimmer hailing from Samoa, entered the Hamilton competition in a bid to achieve baseline LCM times. Coach Schuster explains, “Palepua was a member of our elite development team in China earlier this year. His training ethic coupled with his passion for swimming proved to be a winning formula in increasing his training sets as he advanced during our 15 week high -altitude training programme in Kunming. However, he has missed out on attending LCM meets so didn’t have any provisional times to work from. I couldn’t be more pleased with his recent performance, especially given his age and his lack of competition experience. He exceeded all expectations and has influenced his performance-based trajectory for the next 6 months.” Afoa took out all Samoa Swimming Age National Records for 12 year old male and his times already surpass the higher age record holders too. He swam 7 events overall and dominated in each of his heats. “This competition was a straight final competition with ranking times at the end of each event. Afoa was ranked within the upper 50% for all of his events and claimed first within his age group for his key events and only a few races landing 2nd and 3rd place,” Coach Schuster said. Afoa is training as a middle distance swimmer with his main events being 200m free 200m back and overtime developing the 400m and 800m free as well as the individual medley events. “I really love swimming. I don’t see myself doing anything else just yet and I am really happy that I was able to finally compete and get some really good times. I have some new goals to set and am excited for my next races”, Afoa reflected.
Open National swimmer, 18 year old Thomas Morriss headed into the event with solid expectations. His key events of the 50m free, 100m free and 50m fly registered solid mid-season times. He is anticipating improved times with the subsequent events now that he has determined that his training and technique are coming together well. “I just came off of an acute illness so wasn’t expecting much. I didn’t want to miss this event but knew I was a bit worn out from the illness. However, I am really happy with my times and see where I need to improve within the races, ” Morriss explained. Morriss has been working on building his event versatility to include 200m events alongside his favoured sprint events. His mid-goal focus is on the Oceania 2020 Championships next year, but remains committed to his present setup through his training and intermittent competitions to get him closer to his goals.
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