It’s just too bad that DH and I were not able to attend coz of our prior registration to join World Vision’s Lakbay-Pagasa which coincided on the same date.
Anyway, Che and Karen have continued to swim with BLSS at Metropolis even after their graduation to makeup for some lost days (due to their school review) and in part to be trained by the BLSS teachers for competition. This competition was a surprise for us.
Here’s a nice shot of Karen doing a beautiful Butterfly. That's good body undulation with palms facing back at the recovery.
Here’s a nice dive shot of Che. Corz, they don’t have starting blocks at Metropolis (it’s a resort!) and so the dive seems so low.
There were many attending the competition at PCA, most of them parents and team club members. Che and Karen didn’t really belong to a club although they represented the Star team.
The team "Star" comprised of select students in different batches in this year’s BLSS swim lessons at Metropolis. Why "Star"? Well at one point the mall was called Metropolis Star and the resort was once called "Starland".
There were the customary speeches by the pool. Che and Karen were at the pool early at 6:30am for the warmups.
Joining them there were the 2 tag-alongs, Sandra and Renz to cheer them on. I gave the camera to Tita Gay so she could take pictures and video.
And after viewing and hearing the footages I swear the cheerers could've shouted themselves hoarse after yelling "Go Ate!, Go Ate!"
Here’s Karen waiting for her event at lane 4. They have starting blocks here so that's a new thing.
Che fixing her goggles at lane 6 in her event. The lane ropes are another new thing for the kids. It's good that BLSS allowed her to wear her shorts under the swimsuit as Che wasn't too comfortable.
Che and Karen swam in all strokes. Here’s one of the backstroke events.
Che getting a handshake as Sandra looks on. Che actually finished second in the butterfly but for some reasons was disqualified.
I was told later that her legs stopped kicking at one point. It didn't look like it when I was viewing the video. Hmmm. Anyway, the kids weren’t even aware of these technicalities.
Overall, the 2 put up a good show. I was truly amazed at what they had accomplished and kept telling them how proud they should be.
Who would have thought that Karen could complete ALL FOUR COMPETITIVE STROKES in a 25 meter pool when she couldn’t complete any stroke for 10 meters last year!
These are the colorful certificates they got at PCA. The 4 squares are stickers they received after completing the stroke event. Cute. Too bad they got Che's name spelling wrong. Should've been Celeste.
We had a pleasant surprise when we learned Karen even bagged the 8th place in breaststroke. Apparently, even if she was nowhere in the top 10 among those who finished, many of the fast breaststrokers were disqualified.
And so she was moved up. Here’s the ribbon she got. They even put the time for completing the event on the underside. As shown, Karen’s time was 42.56 secs. Not an Olympic record, but hey, I’m so damned proud!
See the complete list of results here. Congratulations, Che and Karen!
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