Competing at the British Championships (Olympic Selection Trials - March 2012) at the Aquatics Centre, London by Rebecca Barsby - KSC Volunteer.

I've attached some photo's from the trials - of me the pool and the stadium.
First a little bit about myself - I started swimming at Kimberley at 5yrs and then started on Nova Development Squad at 10, after attending a trial. A few weeks after that I did my first Counties -compared to some I was probably a late starter, (my brother Ben would certainly say that).
At 11 I qualified for my first Regional Championships and moved on to Nova B Squad. From then over the years I have qualified for the Regional Championships in all strokes at all distances, although my best and preferred events have been breaststroke and the individual medley. At 14, having qualified for the Nationals I moved onto Nova A squad which is where I still train.
Since 14 I have qualified and competed at both Youth and Senior National level in the breast stroke events - 50m, 100m & 200m, the 200m and 400m individual medley and last year I also qualified and competed in the 200m fly.
This year my initial goal was to qualify to compete at the British Champs, which I did in the 200m breast stroke, narrowly missing the 100m long course qualifying time of 1.12.75 (Pb 1.13.18 long).
After all the hard training, 9/10 sessions per week, before and after school and now my Uni course, doing between 55,000 and 70,000 metres a week, plus gym sessions, I was going to compete in the Olympic pool.
Walking out onto the poolside, in my Olympic trials tracksuit, I was nervous, (which is usual) but pleased as it's not everyday you can say 'I competed at the Olympic trials'
The pool was magnificent, especially when I was racing. The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone found themselves cheering and sitting on the edge of their seats for every event. It was fantastic to see so many swimmers qualifying for the Olympics. To see them perform, was amazing. Overall it was just an amazing experience.
Hopefully in the years to come lots of our local swimmers will be competing at Nationals and the British Championships, if they keep up the hard training.


Rebecca

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