The 2009 National Championships produced another spate of records to confirm that our swimmers' performance graph is showing a continued upward trend across national and age-group categories.
Head coach Andy Colbourn, and club coaches, must have been satisfied with the progress made by their swimmers who posted no fewer than 17 new marks in individual and relay events. Besides, there were several personal bests, most of which came in the wake of new limits established.
The coaches all remarked that the boys and girls are reaping deserved rewards for their hard work throughout the months of preparation where morning and evening training sessions, though monotonous, sow the seeds of good performances during competitions.
Once again, the main individual honours, as far as the national records are concerned, go to Neil Agius and Andrea Agius, both of Sliema, the former with a new 200m freestyle mark of 2 minutes 00.22 seconds and a record-equalling 4 minutes 15.23 in the 400 freestyle, and the latter with a 30.99 seconds in the 50 metres breaststroke.
The championships were a personal triumph also for Neptunes swimmer Talisa Pace who stormed to no fewer than five age-group D records in the 50 free (27.57), 100 free (1:00.30) and 200 free (2:11.70), 50 fly (30.17) and 200 IM (2:33.94).
Daniel Galea (Sliema) and David Zammit (Neptunes), both in category D, were also well in the picture, the former when setting new limits of 32.11 seconds in the 50 breast and 2 minutes 37.56 in the 200 breast, and Zammit with his records of 25.28 and 26.63 in the 50 free and 50 'fly respectively.
Improved limits in the team events demonstrated that there are also other swimmers who are still making progress.
Melinda Sue Micallef, who had an impressive stint in these championships with several personal best performances, Nicole Cremona, Nikki Muscat, Davina Mangion and Maxine Scerri, besides Pace, all formed part of the Neptunes relay squads who set national bests in the 4x50 free, 4x50 medley and 4x100 medley events, with respective times of 1:51.41, 2:04.30 and 4:35.11.
The Neptunes 4x50 metres relay team, made up of the promising David Zammit, Beppe Grech, Edward Caruana Dingli and the established Mark Sammut, also broke the national mark when clocking 1:42.99, while the Sliema medley quartet of Neil and Andrea Agius, Steven Slee and Daniel Galea were also in record frame having set a new mark of 1:54.06.
Widening gap
Despite the general mood of satisfaction following these performances, the vexed question still revolves around our swimmers' inability to maintain more or less the same rate of progress of swimmers in other countries, even our size.
Indeed, we have to admit that this shortfall in our swimming standards in relation to those of other countries is widening. This situation results from various factors over which our swimmers have no control.
Lack of proper funding, disincentives for locally-bred swimmers resulting from arguably ruthless methods when selection is made for international competitions, and, one must not forget, the technological advantage which expensive non-textile swimsuits are giving to swimmers in other countries.
In fact, our swimmers still use their overworn old version of the Speedo LZR, but have no access to the fully synthetic Jaked 01, X-Glide, Acqua Force and other performance-enhancing swimsuits which are making a mockery of the sport and have thrown the world swimming body, FINA, into a maelstrom.
Meanwhile, our boys and girls, probably through default resulting from their inability to go for the smartest apparel available, will continue to negotiate through the calmer waters of the more conventional swimwear.
At least, their progress in this 'neat' environment is still showing signs of vitality.