On Saturday June 12th I participated at the 2010 Finswimming Championships in Brig. In the midst of final exams at school and not really a great training regime I decided this was the one distraction needed to “recharge” my batteries. As I was limited to one day, my program for this year’s meet looked a bit different from what it probably would have otherwise. And it also marked my first outdoors competition of the year.

I started the morning with the prelims of the 100m FS and placed 2nd with a time of 48.6 which was good considering I was holding back a little and using my soft workout fin. Next up was the 50m AP. I won the silver medal in 19.5 which came rather as a surprise. I used the Glide for this race what probably slowed my down off the blocks, so I was actually pretty happy with that time as well.

Podium 50m AP

Pretty good morning so far and my next event, the 100m BF, wasn’t even on my plan before I got to the meet. The event wasn’t on the meet information and I decided to add this event to my program during warm-up in the morning. I really didn’t face any competition in this event and was able to control the race but was glad to get a win for my team.

Now came the event you normally wouldn’t see on my schedule. I was up for the 400m FS. I decided to make the most of the day and maybe also “prove” some things to the young kids on my team. I finished 6th in comfortable 4:12.8 (doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt!) and probably still lost too much energy before the final of the 100m FS.

So last race of the day, final of the 100m FS. I knew the win probably wasn’t possible this year but I really wanted to defend my 2nd place from the prelims. I decided to take some risks and put on the Glide fin. Well, it wasn’t the right decision as I ended up 5th in 49.3.

Still overall it was a good championships meet for myself and I had a great time with my team and friends.

More pictures from the event are available on Martin Gmür’s Flickr page. Full results can be downloaded in PDF format and my personal results can be viewed in the results section.

On Sunday Dec 6th I participated at the Copa da Natal hosted by the Flippers Team Locarno at the Centro Sportivo di Tenero. We left around noon on the day before the meet to bring the 6h travel involved in getting from Geneva to Tenero behind us in a more or less stress free and comfortable manner.

Even though I felt tired because my studies kept me busy and up late many nights, I was looking forward to compete in LCM again. Finswimming is just a different beast in SCM with twice as much under water work involved. And of course in the “high-speed” events such as the 50m AP the turn slows you considerable down.

I didn’t feel great the night before the meet but when I dove in for warm-up the day of the meet I felt good and new straight away that today I would be able to perform at a good level. And indeed, I did have a good meet and didn’t get disqualified for going over the 15m mark as I did last year. My best effort probably came as last year from the 50m AP where I did get a 2nd place finish.

Other than that I did have quit a busy schedule set up for this meet. With the Bi-Fins being officially added to the programs starting 2010, I entered all 3 races (50m, 100m and 200m) in this category. Most people might think that as a swimmer I get a huge advantage over my competitors in these races but the fins really change the whole dynamic and considerably shrink the advantage. Never the less, I was able to bring home two 2nd and one 3rd place in those three races. Of course due to the fact that those races are just recently added there are not as many competitors as in the classic fins races yet but I’m pretty sure well see this number growing as there’s already a high level on the world-wide stage.

For my two other races the 50m and 100m FS I did take some risk in swimming with my workout fin. I really got used to this fin and it feels way more comfortable than the Glide fin I used for the 50m AP in my first race of the day. On the other hand, my workout fin is pretty soft and doesn’t allow for much power to be applied in the water which of course is a disadvantage on those short distances. I manage to have an average time in the 50m FS but did not stand a chance in the 100m FS.

All in all, I had a great weekend with a 3rd place finish in the overall points ranking. I did take some risks and it didn’t pay off but it was the right stage to try out some different set ups for my races. There are two main points I’m taking into the new year; 1. I probably need to get an approved pair of Bi-Fins if I want to get any official results in 2010, 2. I need to start looking around for a stiffer fin for future races.

To finish up, here’s a picture of the small Dauphins Genève Team that made it to this year’s Copa da Natal in Tenero.

More pictures from the event are available over on Ralph Hecksch website. Full results can be downloaded in PDF format from this link and my personal results can be viewed here.

Photos from the 2009 edition of the Copa da Natal organized by the Flippers Team Locarno. The meet took place at the “outdoor” pool in Tenero.

On Saturday Oct 24th I participated at the 30th edition of the Crystal Cup hosted by the SLRG Oberwallis in Fiesch.

This meet is the season opener for most Swiss finswimming athletes but this year not as much of them eventually showed up in Fiesch. With the weekend being placed right at the end of the holidays a lot of the athletes enjoyed the warm weather some place else rather than the chilly mountains. I for one had a great day and a lot of fun.

The format of the meet is really simple. You won’t win anything unless you compete in all the events. Try do to your best in your weak events and score in your strong events to come out on top at the end of the two days. Although I already knew I won’t be eligible for the final rankings because I only raced on Saturday, I went ahead and swam all events on this one day anyway.

With my finswimming being a lot more consisted over the last year and particularly since the beginning of the new season I was looking forward to see where I’ll stand compared to last year. My first event was the 400 FS. Last year it was the first time I ever did a 400 at a finswimming competition and I didn’t do well (my time 4:23.*). I went out to fast and died on the second half of the race. This year my coach laid out the strategy and during warm-up we found the way to go. My goal was to break the four-minute mark and I came really close with a 4:03.1.

Only about five minutes later I had to step up on the block again for the 50 Bi-Fins. I was still in the warm down pool trying to get my legs back when they called me up. So I took my fins and raced to the blocks to swim my race. I didn’t do especially well but it was good enough for this time to take the win.

After a short brake, I swam the first leg on the 4×50 FS mixed relay. With most of our top athletes not attending the meet, I was free to skip the really. But I decided to go for it and swim with our younger athletes. I had a really good race and gave the team a big enough lead for the win.

The next race on the program was the 50 FS. Coming off a rather relaxed and good relay swim I was hoping to post a good time. For most of my competitors the time wasn’t the most important today with the final on the second day. I probably was a little over-motivated and this is never a good thing. I made a huge mistake and on the 50 there’s no space for errors. To cut a long story short, there wasn’t much to be pleased about this race.

Last race of the day was the 200 Bi-Fins. With the CMAS adding those races to their official program more and more athletes start to participate in those events. For myself this 200 was really just an opportunity to get some more racing done. Although a lot of people would imaging that you get a huge advantage coming from the classic swim sport. But I don’t think the advantage is that huge because the fins are a drastic change to the habitual environment. Again on a national level there’s not yet a huge competition and my performance was easily good enough for the win.

It was a fun day and overall I’m happy with how I did. Looks like the season is off to a good start. Full results of the event can be viewed by clicking on this link. The next finswimming meet will be the traditional Copa da Natal on December 6th in Tenero.

Photos from the 30th edition of the Crystal Cup in Fiesch.

The final ranking of the 2009 CMAS Finswimming World Cup is out. As you know I did compete in two (Aix en Provence and Tenero) out of the six stops. I tie 5 other athletes on rank 161 out of a 285 total. My final point total is 58 pts, scoring 4 pts in Aix en Provence and 54 pts in Tenero. Looking forward to improve on that score during the 2010 World Cup Series.

This year’s Finswimming Championships were held on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7 at the Centro Sportivo in Tenero. Unfortunately, the first day of the meet had to be canceled due to heavy rain and thunderstorms. As a consequence of this, Sunday was packed with events as the organizers decided to integrate most of the events into the program of this second day of competition.

But let’s start at the beginning. Our team left early Saturday morning from Geneva in a bus with direction to Tenero. As it was already raining in Geneva, the motivation hit sort of a low for a short time. And our motivation hat to take another hit as the weather got even worse as we approached Tenero (take a look at the picture on the left taken by the time we arrived at the pool).

Somehow our coaches managed to get us excited anyway and ready to race, no matter what weather we’ll have by the time we would have to step on the blocks. So when we arrived, we all took our fins and went to the pool (at least we would get wet only once today).

Bad news of the day … yes, we did get wet but not because we were to swim on that day. Because of thunderstorms the pool was shut down and all races for the day were cancelled. My parents came down to Tenero to watch me swim in that meet but then again there was nothing to see that day. So I took my parents to Locarno and we spent a wonderful day in the city and ended the day with a pizza for dinner.

That pretty much sum up the first day, so let’s start with the action. Waking up on Sunday morning, the weather was back to normal again and we even got some sun for the day. Without any race on the first day, I had to swim all my 5 races on the same day (had no luck and none of my races got kicked off the program). I started the meet with a 50m AP where usually a final would take place later in the meet but with the situation of the weekend my fourth place was carved in stone. Next race was the 100m FS where I managed to get third place without having a particular good swim.

After a short break, I went back to the shorter distance, this time for the 50m FS. It looked like I wasn’t in the right state of mind when I had to step on the block. Once again I didn’t have a good swim and ended up fourth for the second time of the day. I wasn’t looking forward to the next race on my program, the 200m FS, but after that 50m I wanted to get it right this time and redeem myself. I went out a bit to hard and started to pay for it by the 150m turn but I hang in there and did surprisingly well. Unfortunately, I ended up with another fourth place but it didn’t matter this time as being way up there in the results was already a big surprise.

Last race of the day, 4x100m FS relay. I swam the third leg and almost didn’t see any of our competitors anymore. In the end it was an “easy” win for our team but relays are really important and we were happy to bring home the gold to close the meet.

Photos from the finswimming National Championships at the beautiful outdoors pool in Tenero.

Photos from the 6th Round of the CMAS World Cup in Tenero.

The 6th round of the CMAS Finswimming World Cup was held on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 at the Centro Sportivo (outdoor) pool in Tenero. I did only participate on the 2nd day of competition on Saturday but did take on 4 race that same day.

With this being our “home” meet of the World Cup, our group was a bit larger than on the last trip to the WC stop in Aix en Provence. We actually had an official team and a tier two team with some of our young athletes giving them a chance to swim with and watch some of the world’s finest athletes.

I joined my team, the Dauphins Genève, during the 2nd session on Friday afternoon. With the competition already going I wasn’t able to get into the pool for an easy swim after the trip but I didn’t mind too much with this being my first outdoor experience this year. Instead, I took a seat on the stands and enjoyed the afternoon session.

During the two sessions on Saturday I had to take on my 4 races for the day. In the morning I competed in the 100m BF and the 100m NP. My other two race in the afternoon were the 200m BF and yet another 100m NP as the 2nd leg of the 4x100m relay.

In both of my BF races I had a good time but after all it’s different from traditional swimming and it took some time to get used to the knew feeling and position in the water. Anyway, there wasn’t much competition in those two races and I ranked high enough to get some valuable points for my team.

My 100m NP was only short after the 100m BF in the morning. Although I felt a bit tired, the race just before probably helped me to get a proper warm-up. And after my rather disappointing swim in the same race in Aix en Provence and during the Copa da Natal last year, I finally improved on my time and had a good race.

The wonderful World Cup team on the Piazza Grande in Locarno.

For the last race of the day and the meet, we had to team up with an athlete from SLRG Oberwallis to actually have a team. We also integrated one of our young swimmers and thus were not allowed to compete for the final ranking. Anyway, only short after my 200m BF race I had another good 100m NP to finish this round of the World Cup.

Please go to the official meet website for full results and links to newspaper articles as well as to some TV coverage on the World Cup in Tenero. You can also visit Ralph Heksch’s website where you find over 700 pictures taken during the meet to get some visual impressions.