Day 7 saw the last day of competition for the Pacific island teams. Kaiya Brown rounded off the individual races for Samoa as she lined up in the Women’s 50m Freestyle.
She finished Heat 5 in a time of 28.88 seconds. Kaiya began her interview by explaining that she may have lost a little time in her transition part of the race as she came from underwater (the breakout).
‘It wasn’t too bad. I kind of slipped out of my breakout. So, not the best, but 28 is a 28, so ok. Obviously, a personal best is always great but little by little I’m pretty happy with how it’s going at the moment.’
Historically, this race is called the ‘splash and dash.’ Whilst it’s all over in under 30 seconds, it’s much more than a simple blast down the pool. It’s a technical discipline. Over such a short time, there’s little room for mistakes.
‘It’s obviously a pretty short race, so you have to do everything perfectly and execute it the right way. But a pretty easy way to tell how you’re doing is probably by the people around you. You all come in kind of with the same times, with similar personal bests. Seeing everyone else work hard around you, helps you get there.’
Kaiya is now an experienced international athlete having been part of the Samoa set up for the last 6 years. That experience brings with it the ability to reflect on her performances and manage her next steps and expectations, alongside her coach.
‘It’s been awesome. I’m pretty stoked. All my races have been in the second half of the competition, and they’re both back to back, which I’m happy about. Then, to end on relays is also great. Next steps? A bit of reflecting and relaxing. Then pretty much back into training, to give myself a bit of a reset and then back on the drawing board.’
Her favourite moment of this week was up next. It’s a favourite for a number of Pacific island swimmers – the opportunity to swim in a team relay. The chance to walk out on to the pool deck alongside your team and embed that unique island team spirit. Kaiya was buzzing at the thought,
Kaiya joined up with her teammates to conclude Samoa’s appearance at these championships. Paige Schendelaar-Kemp, Johann Stickland, Kokoro Frost and Kaiya made up the team. They recorded 3-53.99 only 4 seconds outside the National Record. As Kokoro commented, ‘that’s really solid to be able to put that together…this is the first time that us four have come together to swim for Samoa for a relay.”
It was a great way to end the week for this tightly knit team.
–Ends–
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