Papua New Guinea made history in the pool on day four at these championships.
Ryan Pini, Tegan McCarthy, Sam Seghers and Barabra Vali-Skelton lined up in the Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay along with host nation Russia.
Ryan Pini got the team off to a great start and put the island team in the lead at 100m securing 56.38 as the atmosphere began to build in the Kazan Arena.
“ With a home crowd and a loud noise, there’s always a little bit of nervousness and excitement. In terms of my time I was a little bit better than my time in the individual event which I aimed for.” Ryan remarked.
Tegan followed up with a Breaststroke leg in 1 minute 17.87 seconds which she declared that she “was really pleased with that time and probably the fastest I’ve gone all year.”
Seghers had an impressive third leg of Butterfly setting the team up for a strong finish. His time of 56.07 seconds for his 100m was the fourth fastest for the third 100m out of the entire 26 team event.
“ It felt pretty good after backing up so soon after the Pacific Games. It was a little bit slower than I’ve been before, but I’m happy.”
Barbara bought the team home in a new national record of 4 minutes 13.90 seconds and was equally pleased with her performance and that of the team who finished behind winners Russia, who broke the World Record.
“ I did a lot better than I thought I would, It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.”
It was left to Ryan to sum up their pleasure,
“We smashed our record from the Oceania Championships last year with the same team, which was pleasing.”
Sam Seghers was in action in the 100m Freestyle, his biggest competition to date, Seghers adapted seamlessly to the big occasion. Weeks before he raced in the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, achieving a time of 51.53. However, the big test came today on the biggest stage yet.
“It’s pretty surreal. I’ve never done a comp this big in my life. It’s intimidating at times but it’s a great experience”, he claimed afterwards. The atmosphere is amazing, especially with a Russian in your heat!” he stated with a smile.
His first 50m then saw a time of 24.93 registered before a quick second 50m of 26.42. The result was a new personal best of 51.35.
Seghers recognised this was the case, stating his second half was much improved.
“I felt it was pretty good. The first 50m felt too controlled but I ended up with a PB...The Second 50 went really well and my dive felt really good”.
The future is certainly bright, for the young swimmer, and his aim is high;
“It’s one step closer to an Olympic Qualifying time and I’m pretty happy with that”.