Local swimmer Tilali Scanlan is in Budapest, Hungary to represent American Samoa in the 17th FINA World Championship.
She will compete in the preliminary events for 100-meter Breaststroke on July 24 and the 200-meter Breaststroke on July 27.
Tilali has been swimming with the American Samoa Swimming Association since she was 8 years old.
She attended her first Pacific Games in 2011 in New Caledonia where she held the title of youngest athlete to participate in those Games.
She then represented American Samoa again at the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, and most recently swam at the 2016 Swimming (25m) World Championships in Windsor, Canada this past December.
She currently holds 5 AS National Records in Long Course events and 4 AS National Records in Short Course events.
Tilali presently trains and competes with the Capital Swim Club in Wellington, New Zealand under the supervision Coach Gary Hollywood while she is working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology Victoria University of Wellington.
About the upcoming event Tilali said, “I am happy and blessed to get to attend the 17th FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS representing my country and home island, American Samoa in long course swimming. I am looking forward to giving my best performance in both of my events and making the most out of the experience.”
She adds, “I have focused my training around building up my stamina, speed, and technique on the breaststroke, focusing on the 100 and 200m races.”
Tilali thanks the American Samoa Swimming Association, the Swimming international federation FINA, and the American Samoa National Olympic Committee for their financial and administrative support, Manu’a Store and Samoa Motors for helping sponsor her training, and the endless support from friends and family, especially her mom Sandra Scanlan.
“Fa’afetai lava to all who have set their time and resources into helping a local athlete on her path to swimming success.”
Live streaming of the events will be available at https://www.finatv.live/en.
