Choi Ahoy: Perseverance Paid Off

After 10 months of swimming training (2 hours a day, twice a week) AS was finally able to join his first ever novice swimming competition held last June 11, 2017 at Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong City.

He missed his supposedly first novice competition last May 27 due to on and off fever of unknown cause. Although he was a little disappointed, he graciously accepted the fact that he was not well enough to compete that time.

We woke up early because we had to be at Don Bosco by 6:30am. What we felt was a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Before we left, I sat down with AS and gently gave him the following reminders:

Just do your best. Whether you win or lose, as long as you do your best, that is enough. Just enjoy and have fun.
I reminded him of Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."; that he needs to acknowledge and depend on God and not on his own ability.

And then we prayed.

It was a special time for me to be able to teach and encourage AS in one of his momentous event yet in his young life.

Stretching

Marikina Poseidon Swimming Club Novice and Class C participants

Wacky. The calm before the storm. =P

As first-timers, we didn't know what to expect. It was only there when we found out what events AS will be participating in.

Overall there was a total of 24 (I think..) events, with different categories: According to gender and age level. There were A LOT of participants, and since the pool only has 6 lanes, it took us the whole day from start to end. You could just imagine the organization it took for the Samahang Manlalangoy ng Pilipinas to execute this.

Don Bosco Technical College's 25m pool

This event was hosted by TYR

Praying before the competition

When I first saw the program of events, it looked like gibberish to me. Thank goodness, a co-parent explained to me what it meant.

I found out that a "heat" in swimming is like a group of swimmers swimming the same event. Example in event 2 (Boys 10 yrs and under, there were about 120 boys divided into "heats" or batches since there are only 6 lanes.) they have to swim at different times.

AS's events were:
Event 2 50m Freestyle Heat 14 Lane 1
Event 6 25m Butterfly Heat 11 Lane 2
Event 14 25m Backstroke Heat 12 Lane 5
Event 18 25m Breatstroke Heat 12 Lane 1
Event 22 25m Freestyle Heat 12 Lane 2

While waiting for their events, they pass time by playing ice ice water / langit lupa, and of course...gadgets. =D

with his swim buddy

Waiting in line

So in this heat, he placed first in 25m butterfly, but this doesn't mean he gets the gold. After all the heats are done, their scores/ time will be tabulated for the overall ranking. Also, the competition is both for novice and class C swimmers. Once a swimmer surpasses the maximum time for novice, he/she gets elevated and classified as a Class C swimmer.

At the end of the day, we finally got the results:

Event 2 50m Freestyle Heat 14 Lane 1 - Class C 2nd place 44.66sec
Event 6 25m Butterfly Heat 11 Lane 2 - Class C 5th place 24.38 sec
Event 14 25m Backstroke Heat 12 Lane 5 - Novice 5th place 29.66 sec
Event 18 25m Breatstroke Heat 12 Lane 1 - Novice 6th place 29.66 sec
Event 22 25m Freestyle Heat 12 Lane 2 - I didn't get the result for this...

Praise the Lord!

It was truly a special and rewarding experience for As' hardwork and perseverance. I saw him mature in areas of obedience (to his coach), discipline and perseverance.