FINA Day 6 Finale  – The final day of the Championships couldn’t start better, with the second Canada’s gold of the competition, in the women’s 4x50m free relay

Anchored by the incredible Penny Oleksiak (the first three swimmers were Michelle Williams, Sandrine Mainville and Taylor Ruck), the local quartet completed the race in 1:35.00, leaving the defending champions, the Netherlands, with the silver in 1:35.37. Italy got the bronze in 1:35.61, with final swimmer Federica Pellegrini adding another medal to her rich roll of honour. In Doha 2014, USA (fourth this time) had been second, while Denmark (only fifth in Windsor) had earned bronze.

Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Chad Le Clos (RSA) were respectively the best female and male athletes of the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), held from December 6-11, 2016 in Windsor (CAN). The Magyar star finished the competition with 42 points, while the South African champion totalled 20. For Hosszu, this was the Championships of all superlatives, with an unprecedented seven gold – 100m and 200m back, 100m and 200m fly, 100m, 200m and 400m IM – and two silver medals, in the 200m free and 50m back. Concerning Le Clos, the Windsor rendezvous was also a successful one, with world titles in the 50m, 100m and 200m fly, and a silver in the 200m free. Moreover, he established the only individual World Record in the WFCU pool, 48.08 in the 100m butterfly.

USA won the Trophy for the Best Team of the Championships. The North Americans were the first ranked in the medal’s table, with a total of 30 podium presences (8 gold, 15 silver and 7 bronze). They were also responsible for the second WR of the competition, in the women’s 4x50m medley, in a time of 1:43.27. Hungary (7+2+2) and Russia (6+5+3) completed the medal’s table top-3, while Japan with a total of 15 awards (2+2+11) was eighth.

One of the best Finnish swimmers, Hanna-Maria Seppala just said good bye to competitive swimming, here, in front of our eyes.

After 19 years in international swimming, a fine career ended in Windsor. It was the final touch, or better to say, the last one at the wall, in the morning heats, as the anchor of the Finnish medley relay.

The effort – 53.62 – is still a sound one, belongs to the better splits in the entire field, though the quartet was not fast enough to have another swim in the finals. So that was it: a final wave to the crowd as the presenter also announced the legend’s farewell… Then, the last walk back to the team preparation area, changing the dress, getting off that tight suit for the last time after a swim at an international event… And… Tears? Yes, of course.

“At the pool it was just the usual finish. Then, in the backstage I had a talk to my teammates. At the end we were crying… You know, we are girls after all…” she said in the iZone, now smiling.

Seppala’s journey was full of success.

“The best moment was my gold medal in Barcelona 2013, in the 100m free. Becoming a world champion was an amazing experience. Another one was my fourth place finish in Beijing, at the Olympics. I missed the podium by just a small margin, still, it was a great success for me. And my dream came true four years later when I could bear my country’s flag at the opening ceremony in London 2012.”

And we could add the loads of silverware Hanna-Maria collected at the short-course events, her specialty was the 100m medley, a typical 25m pool event where she earned silvers at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in 2006 and 2008 and had a four-year winning streak at the s/c Europeans between 2005 and 2008.

Now comes the hardest part, the transition period. Swimmers are told to be living in a kind of bubble, where everything is planned beforehand, practices at home, then in training camps, strict frames, starting then, finishing then, meet at this time, travelling to competitions, warm-up, heats, warm-down, lunch, rest, bus to the pool, and so on… Now, all of a sudden, you are no longer part of that, the regime is up to you.