Harare in early lead at national swimming championships

Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent

HARARE took an early lead in the ongoing National Swimming Championships taking place at the City Pool in Bulawayo amassing 1,095 points after day two of the meet.

A strong performance by the women’s team gave Harare the edge as they raked in 643 points compared to Matabeleland, who had 218 points.

However, the Matabeleland men’s team managed to get 505 points with Harare on 376 in the men’s scores.

In combined team scores, Matabeleland were second with a total of 791 followed by Mashonaland Country Districts, who had 60 points while Manicaland had amassed 31 points and Crocs, a team made up of swimmers based outside the country anchored the log with 19 points.

Harare’s surged to the top with strong performances by the women’s section as they dominated the 200m freestyle event winning gold in all the four age groups with Loyiso Mahobele taking gold in the 12 and under age group, touching the pad in two minutes 35.71 seconds, Vhenekai Dhemba (14) who won the 200m freestyle in two minutes 24:11, Tanatsirwa Chitsurura (16) (2:17.69), Paige Van der Westhuizen (17) (2:12.12).

Matabeleland made a clean sweep in the 17 and over 200m freestyle taking the top four positions as Denilson Cyprianos came in first, followed by Liam O’Hara, Joash McKonie was third and Brett Jones took fourth position.

Harare women also dominated the 50m backstroke while Tichatonga Makaya (14), Dylan Lee (16) and Cyprianos took the honours for Matabeleland in their respective age groups in the same event.

The National Swimming Championships started on Wednesday and end on Sunday.