On Thursday 9th March Taisiya Lavrenkova travelled to the Liberty Insurance 49th annual Singapore national age group championships 2018. Held in the national sports complex in Singapore, she competed against the best swimmers in Asia.
Taisiya was extremely nervous and didn’t know what to expect with this being her first time at a national level competition. But her mother and Coach Chris were there to accompany and extend their full support.
In the weeks prior to the competition Taisiya did a lot of extra training and she even gave up her place at the ISS swim championships where she most likely would have won a medal to swim extra laps of her own pool.
Taisiya competed in six events at the championships and performed extremely well in each event. Having already set herself personal bests at the Rocket Science meet in February we knew it would be tough for her to improve her times with just a few weeks of preparation between the two competitions. Even so, she managed our expectations and single-handedly conquered a much bigger pool.
Here are her results:
***All of the above times are personal bests and school records for the 9-10 girls age group***
First ISS Shark to swim at the national level
We are all extremely proud of Taisiya who is the first swimmer at ISS to swim at the national level. This is a great achievement, and one that we will remember for years to come.
There is an old cliche, "a journey to a thousand miles begins with a single step." In swimming parlance, we can say a journey to a thousand miles begins with a single stroke. And Taisiya's journey has just begun. This could only be the first of many major competitions she will take part in and we're fortunate to be part of this moment.
Congratulations Taisiya! We are right behind you, supporting your endeavours in the water world, as well as the academic world.
