Swim Meet in Qatar

Last weekend Qatar Academy hosted its first International Swim Meet. It was a small event with just 120 swimmers from four countries. The school has a 50 meter indoor pool with seats for 1000 spectators. In past years Max and Simon have traveled to Egypt and Oman to compete with their Swim Team in this ISAC tournament. It was very nice for us to be able to stay at home and host two swimmers from the New Cairo British International School.

Simon broke two ISAC records on the weekend. His most exciting swim was to win a Gold medal in the 50m Backstroke with a time of 33.93 seconds ( a full 2 seconds faster than his seed time). This has always been Simon`s best event. He broke his first international record in Nairobi at his first swim meet ever, when he was 8 years old (50m backstroke in 52 seconds). Simon also took home the Gold medal in 100m Backstroke but no records broken.
The meet organizers asked different QA administrators to present medals and it just happened that Tim presented Simon with his first Gold.

Max`s swims were no less exciting even though he didn't break any records. Max is a joy to watch swim the butterfly -- he slips through the water with ease and grace. He won the Bronze medal for 50m Fly. Max also won a Silver medal in the 400m Freestyle. This is a distance swim and Max enjoys the endurance challenge.

In total Max brought home three Silver and one Bronze and Simon won three Gold and two Silver medals. We are very proud of them, especially since they were asked to "swim up" for this Meet. That means that they competed in an older category than their age. Simon, age 13, competed as a Junior Varsity swimmer against boys who were 15. Max, age 15, competed as a Varsity swimmer against boys who were 18.

Simon with Coach Ruthie

Vergie was very excited to hear about Max and Simon's success!
     Vergie: "Ma'm Lis your boys have made you rich!"
     Lisa: "No Vergie. There is no money for winning."
     Vergie: "But there are medals!"
     Lisa: "Yes they win medals."
     Vergie: "And some are gold!"
     Lisa: "But it's not real gold Vergie!"
     Vergie: "It's not?"
This might seem far-fetched but in Qatar it might also be a reasonable assumption that the gold medals would be real!