Competition

DANIEL BELL - BLOG 1

I’ve just finished by first competitive meet since I came to the US to train at Cal State Berkley in San Francisco who are the NCAA champions.

The training has been really intense and it’s a fantastic challenge which I hope will pay off for me. So I’m thankful to Swimming New Zealand and also my scholarship from the NZOC which has allowed me to fund my way here.

I took a bit of time to settle but it was good to get my first competition under my belt. I won the 100m backstroke final at a meet at Irvine, California. I was fastest in the heats and got home in the final in 55.34 which was okay for this time.

I am back in to heavy training leading in to the Santa Clara Grand Prix on the 16-18 June where I will be competing against some of the biggest names in the sport. It will be good to see some of my training squad from High Performance Centre at the Millennium Institute who are here in their preparations for the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China next month.

Daniel.