It’s been a positive week for Jhnayali Tokome-Garap at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
The 16 year old Junior already holds multiple age group records for Papua New Guinea and got close to her personal best time of 27.48 in the Women’s 50m Freestyle event. Having led the field off the blocks, with a reaction time of 0.58, she surged down the pool to hit the wall in a time of 27.86 seconds. Afterwards, in the interview area, Jhnayalai reflected on her time and her race.
‘It’s fairly close to my PB so I’m happy with that effort and that time. I like to think in the first, maybe 15 metres I have good control and then for the rest just go all out, no breathing. I did take two breaths which is fine. I tried to maintain it to one, but it didn’t go as planned.’
Jhnayali has been on a busy schedule over the last few weeks. Only a matter of weeks ago she was representing her country with distinction at the Pacific Mini Games short course Championships in Palau. It was a successful Meet where she collected personal bests, National Records and medals along the way.
However, there was a kick back afterwards, which affected her lead into Singapore.
‘I think I definitely could have done better in terms of the lead-up to this competition. It was a bit tough because I caught the flu after Palau, consequently leaving me to isolate for a week. Then it was back to school. Then I only had three days of training before traveling to Singapore. So, it hasn’t been the best training for two weeks but it’s been fine to come and get the long course world experience.’
How does Jhnayali reflect on her overall performance at these championships having faced that disruption to her preparation?
‘I just try to think, yes, I didn’t have the best lead up and that is the result of what happened and I’m okay with that. I just try to think that I can do better. I know that I can do better if I did get that training down. Next time another long course competition comes up I’ll definitely do so much better than how I performed at this competition.’
Nevertheless, Jhnayali continues to progress at a fast rate in the pool and is clearly an asset to Papua New Guinea. Next stop for Jhnayali to make up Papua New Guinea’s in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay to round off these World Championships.
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Written by The Reporters’ Academy