With the closure of the Samoa Aquatic Center, the Samoan Development Squad made the most of their summer holidays. Five families who are fully committed to swim development and training for their children, committed to a month- long sojourn in Auckland for intensive pool trainings and competition which resulted in a raised standard of national records and podium medals.
Coach Suzie Schuster detailed, “We tried our best to capitalize on the summer holiday and encourage the families to base themselves in Auckland so pool training sessions could be easily accessed. Auckland boasts a large number of community pools which gives our swimmers a luxury they cannot afford in Samoa with the pool closure.” After many weeks of individualized training within Auckland, the team joined forces with the Roskill Swim Club for a week of intensive team training to prepare them for the Auckland Championships. “It was an intense and relevant experience to train with a larger squad. Send off times couldn’t be ignored and having up to 10 swimmers per lane really pushed our team”, said Andrea Schuster, competing senior female on the Samoan squad.
After a week of training and team building activities, the team outperformed expectations at the Anthony Moss Classic Auckland Championships which hosted over 400 swimmers from Auckland, area counties, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Cook Islands and Samoa.
“The competition was a short course meter (25m) competition and most of our swimmers had never competed in a short course pool. Walls are currently not their friends as training in the sea excludes technical wall work and turns. However, their performance was nothing shy of outstanding. The team swept up 17 medals, broke 19 age and open national records and set 27 new age national records, explained Schuster.
For the senior squad, ages 14 years and above, 15-year-old Gideon Mulitalo, a year 12 student at RLSS dominated in all of his events. Gideon swept up 5 medals: Gold in 50m freestyle and 4 bronze medals in 50m breaststroke, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, and 50m butterfly. His all-round abilities in the 4 swimming disciplines make for a stellar performance in all of his events. Senior swimmer Durant Webster, also 15 at RLSS claimed gold in 100m backstroke, Silver in 200m breaststroke and Bronze in 200m freestyle. Rounding out the male senior division is Le Amosa year 12 swimmer Pitapola Ioane who was awarded two medals, silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 50m backstroke. “Having three 15-year-old boys on the team created friendly yet intense competition among Mulitalo, Ioane and Webster. They are all strong and proved to each other how to be pushed and move up the ranking”, said Team Manager Clyde Hamilton.
The senior division dominated in the female events for sole senior female, Andrea Schuster, who claimed 3 bronze medals in the 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke and the 100m freestyle in the women’s open event. She was pleased to be on the medal podium with seasoned 23 year old Fiji Olympian Buadromo proving Schuster can swim with the regional best.
The junior squad did not pale in comparison to the senior swimmers’ accomplishments. The Seiuli-Hamilton trio worked hard in improving the Samoa swimming medal tally and records. Youngest female swimmer 8 year old Nafanua Hamilton stole the show with stellar swim performances earning her bronze medals in the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke. As the youngest international competitor ever for Samoa swimming, she now holds 7 new age national records. 9 year old Lauuli Hamilton broke 5 National Age group records and dropped significant times for all of his swims. “He was pretty much on fire- nothing phased Uli. The coach gave him a challenge and he just focused on that swim. He added great competitive spirit to the team,” said team Manager Clyde Hamilton. The third of the Hamilton trio was 12 year old Solomona Hamilton who won 3 bronze medals for the boys 12 year old division in 200m IM, 200m free and 100m backstroke. He also broke 4 age national records and set 2 new records.
Another sibling duo were 11 year old Palepua Afoa and 13 year old Violani Afoa who hail from the well-known swimming and triathlon Afoa family in Samoa. This was both their first-ever competition and swam faster than any expectation that was demanded of them. Palepua broke 4 national age records, set 2 new national records, and had a best place finish overall of 6th place in the 50m freestyle with an extraordinary finishing time. Violani, 13 year old attending Samoa College, completed her 3 choice events and excelled in creating new personal best times. ‘It was awesome to see new swimmers make personal achievements in each of their races. They all had to make goals and focus on what they wanted to improve in. Training Violani back in Samoa and then watching her perform really proved she can do whatever she puts her mind to”, reflected JICA assistant coach, Koharu Honda.
The final team member, Urlin Mulitalo, matched sibling strength to her older brother Gideon, and proved relentless in her events. 13 year old Urlin broke 4 age national records and placed first in all of heats with relative ease. She is also an all-rounder who easily transfers her training pace into fierce swimming power when put to the test.
All in all, the 10-person squad came away with more than medals and national records. They came away with a sense of pride and purpose as they saw not only how well they were performing in the pool, but also how supportive all the Team Samoa supporters were who came to cheer them on. The parents and Auckland-based families added an element of spirited fanfare with Samoan songs, chants and cheers throughout the entire competition. As Coach Schuster ruminates, “at times I almost enjoyed watching the parents (in the stadium) cheer and holler and scream for our swimmers more than the race itself. Their excitement, passion and evident support of their children transcended all other fanfare in the arena. It was an absolute pleasure to have them there in full support.”
Now with the swimmers heading back home to attend school in the coming week, and parents back to repairing their lost voices from the cheering and celebrations, the coach is looking at the next plan for the swimmers to keep them moving up, moving forward and staying focused on keeping swimming a long-term passion and commitment.
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