Meet starts tomorrow

The meet finally starts tomorrow! I have been looking forward to competing at this meet for quite some time. I will jump right into the meet with the 100 breaststroke on the first morning. The prelims start at 10 am and the finals at 7:00 pm (GMT + 4 hours) which is 9 hours ahead of East Coast Time.

My preparation has been focused mostly on sharpening up my turns, pullouts, and dives. The new track start blocks also provide a bit of a challenge just because I do not usually practice on them, but I am much more comfortable with them now and have perfected my angle of entry and depth on the dive. My stroke is coming together nicely and I feel very loose yet strong in the water. Tomorrow’s race will be very important for me to put up a very fast time in the non-seeded heats to advance to the semis that night.

Schedule of the events I will be swimming this meet:
Dec 15th – 100 br prelims, 100 br semis* (at night)
Dec 16th – 100 br finals* (at night)
Dec 17th – 200 br prelims, 200 br finals* (at night)
Dec 18th – 50 br prelims, 50 br semis* (at night)
Dec 19th – 400 medley relay prelims, 50 br finals* & 400 medley relay finals* (at night)
*based on prelim or semi advancement

Live Omega results: http://www.omegatiming.com/swimming/racearchives/2010/WSC_DUBAI/WSC_DUBAI_d1.htm

The Canadian team is a smaller team with only 16 athletes, and only 7 males, but should still do some damage with many great swimmers. It was also great to run into my old Stanford teammates Bobby Bollier (USA), Dave Dunford (Kenya), and Jason Dunford (Kenya) and I wish them the best. I am not sure of the tv coverage in the US or Canada, but if someone knows anything, just post a comment below so everyone can see as well.

I will try to update during the meet if I can, but my focus will be fully on swimming fast and preparing for my next races. Thank you again for all your support and prayers!

-Paul