Teens in deep end

 THREE of Papua New Guinea’s elite swimmers are currently attending the World Swimming Championship in Barcelona, Spain.

With the hunt on for the country’s next champion swimmers the world event will provide valuable exposure and experience for the swimmers, all of whom are younger than 19 years.

The swimmers are 17-year old Barbara Vali, 16-year old Tegan McCarthy and 18-year-old Stanford Gore Kawale who are competing against the world’s best athletes from 203 countries. 

Vali competed in the women’s open 100m breaststroke yesterday and will swim the 50m breaststroke on Saturday. 

McCarthy will compete in the women’s open 50m butterfly on Friday and the 50m breaststroke on Saturday.  

Stanford Kawale will compete in the men’s 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly on Friday.

Vali and McCarthy represented PNG at the Noumea Games in 2011 winning bronze in the 4 x 50m freestyle.

The 15th FINA World Championship swimming events are from July 28 to Aug 4.

Julio Maglione, FINA President said this was the major FINA competition of the year and world’s best athletes are gathered to compete.

 “The elite swimmers will show to the world that the steps undertaken by our members in the five continents in terms of enhancement of the FINA disciplines in each country are a source of progress,” Maglione said.

Prior to the competition events a number of congress meetings are to be held.  Oceania Swimming Association (OSA) held their annual meeting last Wednesday where 19 Oceania federation delegates discussed the development taking place in their region, and how to improve the delivery of projects.

The treasurer of OSA Elizabeth Wells delivered the audited accounts for the 2012-13 financial year ending.