Members of the Ege Yukselen Didim Club enjoyed a fantastic weekend of competition and returned with medals and new personal bests.

The meet, at Aydin University on November 15-16, saw the club represented for the first time with nine students, with five new members taking part. The team also included Mira Dedemen and Maya Gördüemel. The competition saw 217 children attend and were watched by around 1,000 spectators

One swimmer, Sura Deniz Kuşlar, taking part in the age 12 category made it to the semi-finals of the Turkish Championship races but sadly never managed to qualify. However, she still swam her personal best times.

Mira, aged 11, managed to qualify for the Turkish Championships for the 50m freestyle. She returned to Didim with one silver and three bronze following her performances.

Maya managed to qualify in all categories except the 100m backstroke where she missed out by 0.01 seconds. The qualifying time been 1:19.99 and Maya swam 1.20.00. However, Maya swam nine in total and won two golds, five silvers and two bronze.

Maya’s mum, Samantha, commented: “Maya didn’t have much luck on the day losing her cap and goggles during the 200 medley that she was leading but ended up in third place. It looked like she was about to quit but toughed it out and carried on pulling back 10 seconds and missing out in first place by 2 seconds.

“She said it was so special having a team with her and having them pool side cheering her on helped her carry on and not give in.“

Mira (left) and Maya (centre) in the club’s new kit, with Club Coach Ali

Trabzon focus

Sam added: “The cherry on top was the improvement in swimming times. Maya is now in the top 10 fastest recorded competing swimmers in the Ege region for her age group for nine races.

“However, we were surprised to hear that her 100 backstroke time took her into the top 5 fastest swimmers in the Ege season, with the record still held by a girl from Marmaris in 2019.”

With less than a week before Maya and Mira travel to Trabzon to represent Didim and Aydin in the Turkish championship joined by around 700 swimmers from the top clubs in Turkey.

The swimmmers are not yet ranked in the top 100 but will be training hard day and night this week to make Didim proud.

Special thanks

She added that the team were all kitted out at the Aydin Univeristy championships in brand new uniforms and looked the part.

This was only made possible by a donation from Sinbad Jewellery, a family-run business in Didim that knows how much commitment and financal backing it takes for children to be at a competitive level.

Sam added: “Maya and her team would like to thank Sinan and Mus for the generous and kind donation, making sure that the new team not only looked good, but felt good to.”

Mira (centre) with her parents Sinan and Mus

Sinan and Mus’ daughter, also called Mira, is also a competitive tennis player and competed herself last week in Antalya making it to the finals.

Tennis player Mira and her awards

The team would also like to thank Mehmet Karakuş, from Akbuk Travel, who supplied the bus to take the swimmers to the weekend competitions.