Photo's submitted by Abdalla Mardli

Abdalla Mardli of Morden recently competed at the 2016 Man/Sask Championships in Regina and now owns the title of fastest male in Manitoba in the 50m breaststroke.

"We had our final championship meet, and every year it is either held in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. This year it was held in Regina and I went in seeded fifth for the fifty meter breast stroke and I ended up being the fastest in the Province, which is really good. I also won silver against a very fast twenty-five year old man who swims for a college team," shared Mardli, who is seventeen.

Mardli is almost a decade younger than the individual he finished behind, which shows great promise for the young swimmer.

"Sometimes it's a little bit unfortunate for us sixteen and seventeen year old to compete with these 24 and 25 year old," said Mardli. "It's also kind of motivating and even when you beat some of them, obviously it feels really good."

During the Man/Sask Championships Mardli was selected to be a part of the Provincial Relay Team. Cody Evans, Jamie Alexiuk, Dora Modrcin, Carter Wasyliw, and Alisha Muth joined Mardli on this team.

This was his first year on the National team and has improved his times in the water due to more practice and training.

"This was a huge jump in training," explained Mardli. "I train from about 4:30 p.m. until about 8:00 p.m. every day, with the exceptions of Sunday's. That was a big jump, because usually I would train about two hours a day then it jumped to about four a day. We do dry land at Elite in Winnipeg, which is crazy, because I've never had an opportunity to work out with real trainers. Then we go and swim at the Pan Am from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. I'm sure that huge jump in training is what helped me top the Province in the 50m breast."

Mardli noted his main two races are the 50m and 100m breaststroke and is also working on training for sprint butterfly.

As for next year Mardli plans to compete with the Marlins again and is looking forward to going to a number of meets across North America.

"Next year we should be competing in Maui, Hawaii, Minneapolis, and Calgary. There should be lots of traveling meets which will be fun. it will be a good way to end my career with the Marlins," said Mardli.

As for even further down the road Mardli has been in talks with a few schools in the United States, but hasn't finalized anything at this moment.