Furgeson and Haris bring home new records for the Marshall Islands

​Day four of the 16th FINA World Championships brought joy for the Marshall Island’s Colleen Furgeson.

In the Kazan Arena, Furgeson took to the pool in the Women’s 50m Backstroke. 

Having previously competed in the same event two years earlier in Barcelona

The 2013 World Championships in Barcelona saw her set an impressive time and personal best of 34.48 seconds, in the heat. However, the more recent Pacific Games, in Papua New Guinea, saw that record beaten unequivocally with a time of 33.19 seconds. With only a two week gap between the games and leaving for Kazan, preparation was limited. This did not seem to affect the young athlete.

Her strong start stood her in good stead for the rest of the race, which ended with a new personal best and national record time of 33.04 seconds, beating the previous one by 0.15 seconds.

When questioned about how the race went, she replied;

“It was a good race. I think I did pretty well...I PB’d but I’m trying to still beat 33 (seconds) but I’ll get there one day”.

The level of confidence and ambition shown was clear when asked about her next race, the Women’s 100m Freestyle, she claimed; “I think I’ll PB. My last race in Papua New Guinea wasn’t very good (a time of 1:06.19) but I think I can redeem myself”.

The World Championships have been a humbling experience for Furgeson. A big part of this event has been national pride.

Coming into Kazan, her aims were to; “ get personal bests and to represent my country awesomely. It’s an honour, honestly, to represent my country at such a huge swim meet”, she said beaming.

If you can be described as a stalwart at just 22 years of age, then Giordan Harris of the Marshall Islands is just that. He’s been attending major swimming championships since 2007. With his first World Championships being in Melbourne.

Giordan lined up in the biggest field of the day of 115 swimmers in the 100m Freestyle. He was joined by eight other swimmers from the Pacific islands. 

Starting in Heat 2, he finished in second place in 57.75 seconds, lowering his previous best in the process. The experienced swimmer who grew up in Ebeye reflected calmly on his performance,

“ A drop in time that’s always good. The Pacific Games were just a couple of weeks ago and it’s kind of hard to bounce back but it’s worked out. The experience in Papua New Guinea set me up for a better execution and the steps to coming here and how I’m training for this race. So it gave me a good insight on how to swim here."

He also gave us an insight on how these championships compare to the others he has attended over the years,

“ Every games they just seem to step it up in some way. It just keeps getting better and better. I love the Athletes’ Village, I love the environment, it’s great to be with all the athletes in the same place. I’m riding the bus and eating with the world’s top swimmers when normally I’d just see them on YouTube.”

Giordan is well known for his passion for both swimming and representing his country. Indeed, he was the first athlete from the Marshall Islands to receive an Oceania Australian Foundation Scholarship in 2013. Today was just as special as all those other races he has lined up in,

“ I’m always as passionate about representing my country. This is what I look forward to in training all year around so I get to come to these types of championships for me to represent my country”.

Giordan is back in the pool on Day 6 in the 50m Freestyle.