Never Give Up

I couldn’t believe it. It was possibly the most important time of my life and I had forgotten my vision goggles. They were essential because I had poor vision, so normal swimming goggles wouldn’t do. But, just in case they did help me see, my coach gave me some spare goggles. I had minutes before the International Swimming Competition for young women started.
Gloomily, I studied the other competitors, who were smirking and whispering and pointing at me. Most of them were large, with strong arms hanging from their tough shoulders. Someone could easily say that I didn’t have a chance, but if I had one good trait, it was that I had faith in myself. So I was standing on the platform with my swimming cap and goggles on, watching the seconds tick by on the gigantic electronic scoring board.
Thirty seconds… Twenty seconds... Ten seconds…
As soon as the whistle blew, I dived in to the aquamarine water as quick as an arrow and started slicing my hands through the water as swiftly as possible. Yes, I could win this race. Except for the fact that I could not see the end of the swimming pool because usual goggles didn’t help.
So midway through my first lap I just yanked them off. Then something weird happened… The turquoise fog cleared and I could see every molecule of water around me. My eye sight became as clear as it was when I was a little child, when I wasn’t wearing any glasses. I definitely saw more now than in my vision goggles. The water seeped into my eyes and gave me confidence. I felt as if I was equivalent to the water. I quickly remembered about my competition and resumed doing freestyle. The water gave me adrenaline and power, and soon I found myself swimming faster than I had ever swum before.
Before long I had raced past nearly everyone and was on to the last lap. But there was one more girl in front of me who managed to pull my leg just before the finish line. It stopped me momentarily, giving her time to get very close to the end of the lane. But I quickly caught back up to her. Both of us pushed our hands through the water... and tapped our hands on the edge at the same time.
The crowd was wild. They kept clapping and cheering. All the other competitors and I walked back to our seats. We were going to know who won in thirty seconds. The team liked to keep the crowd in suspense.
Finally, the scoreboard lit up and the name on it… was Amelia’s. Apparently that’s what the girl was called. All I felt was dread. No, this couldn’t be happening. I won the competition fair and square. I won it…
“Oh, I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid we’ve made a mistake. The winner of the 2015 International Competition for young women is… Anastasia Terenteva!”

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Write4Fun.net was established in 1997, and since then we have successfully completed numerous short story and poetry competitions and publications.
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