Competition over

Today is the last day of swimming competition but I have completed all of my races which is such a good feeling.  Winning a silver in the 4x200m was the best moment of my life, was really not expecting to win a medal so was just amazing when it happened.  Winning a bronze in the 4x100m was really unexcpected, was so exciting when we saw on the scoreboard the canadians had been disqualified moving us into the bronze medal spot.  This week has been so interesting, was not too happy with my individual 200m freestyle but I felt I made up for it in the relays.  It has been such a good learining experience to compete at such a huge event especially with the media and the village life etc.  The village has been pretty good, we have all been so cautious with our hygeine so have not been sick which was a bonus.  Looking forward to watching a few other sports now and then heading home next friday after the closing ceremony for some much needed rest.

The Village

We have finally arrived in Delhi after our week long training camp in Abu Dhabi.  The city is very interesting, if it was not for our special lane for Games vehicles it may have taken about four hours to get from the airport to the village.  The village is AMAZING! It is easy to tell that India wanted everything to be perfect but it just didn't happen so easily.  Our support staff say it gets better everyday.  The New Zealand towers are definately the best towers out of all the countries.  We are using the 29028 (the height in feet of Everest) Hillary and Tenzing motto for motivation and inspiration for our 2010 team.  It is very moving and makes me want to do absolutely everything in my races to perform well.  The food hall is very big and has many different nationality food options.  Support staff have been here for 2 weeks now and have not yet had any sicknesses which is promising.  Have to head to the pool now for first time, will be good to check out.

Abu Dhabi- Beginning of training camp

We have now arrived in Abu Dhabi after an 18 hour flight to Dubai and 2 hour bus ride to Abu Dhabi.  It was interesting driving along in our bus and looking at everything you have seen pictures of in real life.  The Burj Dubai tower (the tallest huilding in the world) was so cool to see.  Everything here is quite different.  We never see any woman anywhere, all the cars are full of men and everywhere we go is full of men.  The hotel we are staying in is one side of a large, amazing football stadium which has a soccer game playing tonight which will be exciting to watch.  The swimming pool is quite old but will be good while making my last preparations.  Still waiting to hear officially if we will moving onto Delhi.   

Flying away

Have nearly finished packing my bags as I have only one more day until the plane leaves tommorow for Abu Dhabi.  I am now getting very excited to head away and especially to race in less than 2 weeks now.  The last couple of days training have been really promising, posting some pretty quick times so really looking forward to racing.  I have found it hard trying to fit everything I need into my bags to be under the 30kg weight limit so hopefully I do not need to pay excess baggage charges tommorow.  On Saturday we had the media come into our training session and also had a formal introduction where we had to wear our number 1's, it made me feel so proud of being on the NZ team.

Countdown has begun...

It is now only 11 days until I board the plane with the New Zealand swim team to start my adventure to the Delhi Commonwealth games.  We will be doing a pre camp in Abu Dhabi for a few days to acclimatise to the temperatures and time zones and then moving onto the village in Delhi on the 30th September.  I am still in my last few weeks of intense training and then will make the way down to ensure I am at peak racing condition in a couple of weeks.  I am feeling really confident with my swimming in training right now so am getting very excited to post some good results. Will post frequently on this blog with information regarding my Commonwealth experience and then further on throughout the rest of my swimming career.