Stewart tells tales of World Championships

The cream of Saipan’s crop didn’t take home any medals in the 8th FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China, but Saipan Swim Club star Nina Mosley pulled off some impressive swims in the equally impressive 15,000-seat retractable roof Qi Zhong Stadium.

Just a day after returning home to Saipan, SSC head coach Michael Stewart was poolside coaching swimmers of various abilities throughout the day in Marpi, but he took a few minutes between workouts to share his thoughts on his trip to the land of the Great Wall.

“The trip was good. The weather was good. It was interesting to see new people, new cultures. There were lots of people there. It was the world’s best. There were three world records set—two by the United States and one by the Australian women’s relay team. I didn’t anticipate that world records being set but they stepped up so it was kind of neat,” he said.

“Kind of neat” was far from Stewart’s description of the feeling he got from being present to witness a swimmer setting a world record.

“Chilling, very chilling. Goose bumps all over. It’s like seeing the best that’s ever done —ever. I think so. Even though it was an all Chinese audience, when the world record was posted they were going crazy. It’s a neat accomplishment,” he said.

While Mosley wasn’t able to set any records, she was able to score three personal bests in the Shanghai tank. Making the achievement even sweeter is that Mosley is competing in her first major event since beginning her difficult road to recovery that followed her rigorous training regimen that caused her to miss a number of local events with a shoulder injury.

“We had some adversity through the year with injuries and recouping through the injury. We learned to manage to train a little bit through the injury and she came out of the meet unscathed. She’s still sound, which was one of my worries—whether she could still compete and come out of the meet without any injuries. She’s ready to get back in and start training for [the Micronesian Games],” said Stewart.

This wasn’t Mosley’s first time to go to the world championships. In 2004 she made the trip to the mainland with Dean Palacios for the 6th Annual FINA World Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, but this was her first trip out on her own.

That won’t have to happen for a while as she is now able to join her team to prepare for the 2006 Micronesian Games that will be held in her home tank this summer. While it will be a far cry from the 128-country competition in China, Stewart’s team will have to put the time in for practice if they hope to succeed on Saipan.

“It’s still too early to say, but we only have 10 weeks to go. Prior to leaving for Worlds the kids were looking good in training. I was gone 10 days and we’ll see what they did while I was gone. That will be a really telling tale,” he said.