March 2006 – The Commonwealth Games

Its been a long time coming but finally March has arrived and its time to race the Commonwealth Games, my biggest swimming competition of the year. The Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Australia. I enjoyed the meet so much even though i ended up being touch out for a medal and the Aussies got a 1-2-3. They have been unstoppable all year but suprise winner was Liesel Jones who beat world record holder Jade Edmonston. I was there as defending Champion from Manchester 2002 and the time i took the Gold in 4 years ago would have challenged the Gold medal by a matter of 100ths of a second! It was not to be my day this time but i had a solid swim and am still stepping forward in the right direction. A comeback takes paitence and i learnt useful lessons in Melbourne. The crowd was awesome and atmosphere fantastic. The kiwi swim team did great also and many of us caught up with old friends and made new ones along the way. After heading back to New Zealand there was no time for a break as it was time to prepare for the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Shanghai in a few weeks time.