One of the most experienced of the current Pacific island swimmers entered the swimming competition on Day 5 at these World Aquatic Championships in Singapore.
Kingdom of Tongas’ Charissa Panuve was in Heat 4 of the Women’s 100m Freestyle. On the world stage 12 years on from her first World Championships in Barcelona.
Today she hit the wall in a time of 1-05.30. Shortly afterwards she gave her thoughts.
‘It was a good race. You get out what you put in. I’m just grateful that I’m able to be here and represent our little kingdom in the best way that I can.’
No-one could question the commitment and exposure that Charissa has given to her country. Her first senior international meet was at the Oceania Swimming Championships in 2008. Not only has she been committed but very consistent. Just last year she broke the National Record in this event at the Singaporean Championships in a time of 1-02.31.
‘So, I received the World Aquatic Scholarship about two years ago just after Covid and was based in Thailand for about two years and when you’re away from home you kind of only have swimming to focus upon. You know you don’t have family to run to, so putting in that work has been definitely life changing. I think my faith has also contributed a lot. I’ve grown so much spiritually in the last couple of years and that’s definitely helped.’
Despite still churning out the performances in the pool, Charissa has one eye on life after competition.
‘So post-Olympics, I’m transitioning into a coach-athlete career pathway. It’s been a little different. This championship is a small debut as swimmer/coach. Also, I was offered a role at the training centre that we are at in Thailand, to assist with the Head Coach and with squad training. I’ve attended learning courses for my World Aquatics certificates. You get to view swimming from a different perspective and I think it definitely adds to being a swimmer as well. You get to see both sides.’
Charissa clearly lives by her own motto, “Strive for excellence, don’t quit!” She’s an inspirational and engaging person on a number of levels, explaining that she also makes the most of her day job too.
‘So, I speak fluent Mandarin. Being in a non-English speaking country, I help teach English sometimes. Many of my students are Chinese, so that translation and helping them kind of break that language barrier is helpful and it’s definitely a useful skill.’
Charissa is in action again on Day 7 in the Women’s 50m Freestyle.
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Written by The Reporters’ Academy Photos by Andrea Schuster