
As a first timer visiting South Korea, this trip delivered on every aspect. I arrived at midnight two days before my open water event and just had the time to get my keys from the front office and get into bed trying to recover from a long day of traveling and excited to finally visit the village and the pool. On the 11th August, my family and friends were back in Dubai celebrating Eid Al Adha, whilst I was getting ready at 4am in the morning to leave to the open water venue. To tell the truth, I didn’t get much sleep as I was nervous and at the same time excited for my first event of the competition and the first international competition in 3 years. I was sipping on my secret training hydrating mix and trying to keep calm. Then, while going down the bridge I took my caffeine shot and jumped in the water. It was a deep water start, I decided to go all out from the start and not let anyone have any hope to stay with me then try to keep up and stay away from them as much as I can. It was a very windy day with big waves and currents, but I kept up and it was out of question to give up or let the girl behind me feel that she can catch up to me. I touched the wall almost 2 minutes ahead of the second swimmer and it felt so great to know that all the training and sacrifices I made all summer paid off.

The competitive Swimming was starting on the 13th. After the gold from open water I felt great especially after taking my protein shake, night protein shake and Omega 3 shots to speed up the recovery process. The 100 Breast-stroke was my first event. Coming from a long-distance event, it was hard to sprint the first 50m, but the second 50m when the girls started getting tired, I felt great, won the 100m and did the fastest time of the competition. Then, unfortunately a had a food poisoning that started the same night, didn’t feel great the next morning in the 400m IM but swam it anyway and finished 3rd. That same night I was admitted to the ER where I spent the night but for me it was out of question to give up at this stage. I had to miss the 50m Free because it was early morning but went and swam the 200m IM and defended my title from the 25-29 age group from Kazan 2015 and won once again in the 30-34 age group. The last event was the 200 Breastroke, it has always been my favorite event and my best event, the event was not too hard to win and made my medals count to 4 gold and 1 bronze.

Overall it was a great experience and competition with a lot of unexpected events but thanks to my sponsor Secret Training I managed to keep hydrated at all times, recover from event to another and limit the effects of the food poisoning!
