Meet a member – Hoda

Hoda is Spencer’s Cairo-based membership secretary. She was a reluctant and nervous swimmer as a child, preferring gymnastics until she was 11. It was, however, a successful transfer to the pool, and she went on to compete a number of times at the Egyptian Nationals in 800m free and 100m and 200m backstroke as well as 200m IM, achieving a 3rd national ranking for 200m back and 4th for 800m. Like many swimmers, she stopped swimming when she started studying for her career as an electrical engineer. After a ten year break from the pool, she came back to swimming six years ago, deciding that she needed to make time to get fit and lose some weight. Having been a bit disappointed with her performance at the 2012 World Championships in Riccione, Hoda decided to join Spencer in 2015 so that she could compete in European events, including the European Championships in London in 2016 and the Nationals in Sheffield. Her specialities are now butterfly and IM. In addition to some yoga and gym work, Hoda swims four or five times a week at Gezira Club in Cairo. For the last two years, swimmers from the club has seen in the New Year with a 100×100 freestyle set, but her favourite set is 16x25m Fly @ 35 seconds. Her next challenge is the 2018 European Championships in Slovenia, where she hopes to continue to win medals and improve on her times.

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