Didim American College student Maya Gördüemel was all smiles after a gruelling swimming meet at the weekend.

She was among 400 competitors from Izmir and Aydin competing in the Aydin and Aegean regional heats at Aydin University’s Olympic pool across Saturday and Sunday.

Maya was part of a trio of representatives from the Ege Yükselen Swimming Club. She was joined by Mira Zeynep Dedemen, who attends Valilar School, and Amine Ayliz Türkay, from Ataturk School.

For the Aydin segment of the heats, Maya, aged 11, competed in the 50m and 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m and 100m breaststroke for the Aydin segment. She came first in the 50m and 100m backstroke, and second in all other heats.

She also competed for the Aegean regional heats. In these heats, she came 1st in the 50m backstroke, 3rd in the 50m freestyle and second in all other heats.

Maya was the only one to reach the top three in all races across the whole competition.

Mira came 2nd in 100m backstroke, third in the 50m freestyle and fourth in the 100m freestyle for the Aydin heats.  In the Aegean heats, Mira finished third in the 100m backstroke.

Maya’s mum, Samantha, commented: “I am really proud of what Maya achieved. She only passed a fitness test on the Friday because she had a suspected broken foot last Monday playing football at school and she hasn’t trained all week. So what she achieved at the weekend was remarkable

“I have never experienced anything like it. There was 2000 people at the event. I was also very proud of all the students that stuck it out over the two days as it was such a busy and overwhelming day.”