Second Personal best sets Seghers on track to emulate the master
Competing in Heat Seven, along with one other Pacific island swimmer, he clocked a time of 23.46 seconds, beating his Pacific Games time of 23.78 seconds and setting a new personal best at the same time. His time was 0.68 seconds off team-mate Ryan Pini’s National Record time, something he has the belief to beat; “It’s definitely the aim, I’ll get there eventually”.
On the swim itself, the PNG swimmer admitted he was happy but felt he could do better. “It’s a tiny PB I was hoping for faster”
“I took a breath at the wrong side...but that’s all part of racing. You learn something new every day”.
However, he did take positives from it. “I think my start and my finish went really well which is something I’ve been working on... especially my dive”.
When asked about his highlights of the week, Seghers replied; “Getting to meet my idols, and having a chat with Olympic Gold medallists it’s a bit of a surreal feeling. It’s what every kid dreams of”.
He then concluded with his plans for the future.
“From here we’ll have a break and then buckle down and get some Olympic qualifying times”.
Tegan McCarthy’s face was a picture of concentration as she waited for the start. In Heat Two, the Women’s 50 Butterfly. She was not the only Pacific Islander, having been joined by Dirngulbai Misech, of Palau, Annie Helper, of the Marshall Islands and Irene Prescott, of Tonga.
Since her first international FINA World Championships (25m) in Dubai in 2010, McCarthy has come a long way to competing here in Kazan.
Her start was good. A reaction time of 0.69 seconds was as fast as the quickest swimmer in the heats, Sarah Sjoestroem, the World Record Holder of Sweden.
“At the start I felt good but at the end I lost it a little bit”.
Her eventual time came in at 30.27 seconds, marginally off her personal best.
“It was just off my PB so it wasn’t as I hoped it would be, but it was alright”, she mused. In terms of improvement she identified; “holding my stroke for the 50 (m) and pushing harder”.
Her final thought on the World Championships were;
“It’s been a great experience. So nice to come from Papua New Guinea and come straight here and compete...it’s a really nice experience”.
After previously competing in the Mixed Medley Relay and the 50m Butterfly, it was now time for Ryan Pini of Papua New Guinea to compete in its longer version, the 100m.
The 6 foot 5 inches swimmer has experience of high-profiled competitions, participating in three Olympic Games and three Commonwealth Games. His credentials include a Gold medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne and then Silver in Delhi, 2010. He is also the proud holder of the Papua New Guinea National Record (51.62 seconds), which he set in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. His more recent triumph was at the recent Pacific Games, in his home country, where he achieved a Gold medal with a time of 53.42 seconds.
Catching up with him in the Mixed Zone he provided his thoughts on his swim,
“It was good, up there with what I’d done this year”, he said after receiving a time of 53.02. “I think I executed it pretty well”.
He highlighted his area of improvement as fitness.
“For me (an improvement) it’ll be fitness. The last two and a half months have been really challenging. I had my appendix removed and a fairly bad back injury and all considering I’ve done really well”. Having finished 30th out of 73, “very well” was a more than fair assessment from the inspirational swimmer.
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