Another Personal Best For Matelita

‘Doubling up’ is often a term that is familiar to swimmers, meaning extra training sessions.

Matelita Buadromo, from Fiji, spoke about ‘doubling up’ after competing in the Women’s 50m Freestyle at the 18th FINA World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea over the weekend, two weeks after competing at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.

However, this time there was a difference, Buadromo had just ‘doubled’ her number of personal best times at these championships. A magnificent achievement, especially added to her schedule of back-to-back Meets at the Pacific Games and here.

Her second personal best (PB) came in as many races, following on from her 100m Freestyle success earlier in the week. In the 50m discipline, she clocked 27.00 seconds. It was a happy Matelita who looked back over the one length sprint;

“The 50m is new for me, I do mid distances and I’m bringing it down a little as we prepare for Tokyo (Olympics). The 50m Free was something to kind of help me for the 100m. After the week we’ve had here and following on from Samoa, it was a case of keeping it going. So, I’m really, really happy and it’s always good to do a PB, especially when you’ve been doing it for this long, so I’m just super happy. I would have liked to go under 27 seconds but a PB is still something to be happy about.”

Buadromo placed second in her Heat, and she told us what her coach had said to her this week;

“Just rest up and focus on the little things and have a lot of fun.

"It’s probably my most fun World Championships so far,”  she said

Buadromo has had an incredibly successful week here in Gwangju and we challenged her to pick out her best moment.

“ I think what I’ve really liked about it, is just being able to hang out with my friends. Watching them improving and enjoying themselves, and for me to see more and more Pacific island swimmers who are coming up in their own island countries. It’s been good to get to know them.”

The experienced 23 year old swimmer makes a valid point about the Pacific islands recent growth in elite swimming representation. As she continues;

“ A lot of the islands I know, such as the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, I’ve been really happy for them and it’s great to have them part of the (Oceania) family and for them to have the honour of competing on the highest stage.”

With role models, like Matelita Buadromo alongside them, those young swimmers coming through the ranks can only benefit from being around her at major championships for a number of years to come.

Source: The Reporters Academy

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