On my way down to Heathrow for what seemed like the hundredth time, I took a moment to realise how lucky and privileged I am. It shouldn’t be taken for granted, travelling the world, seeing different cultures and meeting new people, all in the process of chasing my dream to compete at a home Olympics in 15 months’ time.
In the past 6 months swimming alone has taken me to Budapest, Doha, Delhi and Florida. This time I was on my way to Durban, South Africa for a training camp.
In the past 6 months swimming alone has taken me to Budapest, Doha, Delhi and Florida. This time I was on my way to Durban, South Africa for a training camp.
After an 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, a domestic flight to Durban and a short drive, our training group reached the house at around 7pm. We quickly dropped off our bags before exploring our new home for the next three weeks and, of course, taking a short dip to loosen off. On first viewing the pool looked like it was built in the 1960s! But all the same it was a 10 lane 50m pool with a 8 lane 25m pool next to it. It reminded me of an old lido but we get the use of the pool whenever we want and all the space we need, so it’s perfect for us.
This training camp is very different to a normal camp because we’re all staying in a large house that’s been converted specifically for swimmers who train at the pool. I'm sharing a room with World and Commonwealth Champion, Liam Tancock, and Commonwealth Medallist, Grant Turner. We also share a communal living room and dining room with the girls: Lowri Tynan, Commonwealth and World Championship swimmer; Lizzie Simmonds, European Champion, and Fran Halsall, European and Commonwealth Champion.
We’re living a life of luxury thanks to two amazing maids who also live in the house. They cook breakfast and dinner for us, plus they do our cleaning, washing and ironing. It’s like going back 10 years and living at home with your mum having tea on the table after training!
We’re out here for the last big block of work before the World Championship trials in Manchester. The trials are the first big competition of the year, with qualification for July’s World Championship in Shanghai the big incentive.
During our stay in South Africa we were invited to compete at the Port Elizabeth invitational swim meet. About an hour’s flight south from Durban, the Port Elizabeth meet gave us the chance to race against other international swimmers and fine tune skills we’ve been working on since last year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
I raced a lot over the two days and put in some good performances. I'm still lacking on front end speed but that’ll come over the next 4 weeks as I start to taper into trials. (Tapering is where we decrease the volume and intensity in the lead up to a major competition).
After the competition we took a day off to drive up to Tala Safari park. We saw some great sights including Zebra, Giraffes, Warthogs, Elephants (I even met one) and Lions. We tried to find the hippos but ended up getting stuck in some marsh land so had to turn back!!
After the competition we took a day off to drive up to Tala Safari park. We saw some great sights including Zebra, Giraffes, Warthogs, Elephants (I even met one) and Lions. We tried to find the hippos but ended up getting stuck in some marsh land so had to turn back!!
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| Making friends with the locals. |
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| I thought we had collected a couple of monkeys, but it turned out to be Liam and Grant! |
The South African people have been really friendly and welcoming. Its somewhere I’d definitely love to come back to, either with swimming or on holiday.
Now there’s just one week left of training here before we fly home, and then it’s just over 3 weeks until the world trials. In this time I’m planning to rest up as much as possible, saving all my energy for the competition and hopefully gaining qualification to Shanghai!
Tickets are on sale for the World Championship Trials in Manchester, March 5-12th, 2011. Please visit http://www.swimming.org for more information.
