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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
HARARE Province retained the Zimbabwe Senior National Swimming Championships title as they continued with their dominance at Les Brown Pool in Harare yesterday.
It was an interesting five days of competition with Bulawayo, Matabeleland South, Mashonaland Country Districts and Manicaland taking part.
The championships ended yesterday with Harare claiming the overall title. The hosts finished tops with a combined team score of 3 013.50 points.
Bulawayo were second with 1 658 points while Matabeleland South were third with 235.50 points.
Mashonaland Country Districts were fourth with 183 points, followed by Manicaland on fifth place with six points having fielded the smallest team.
Harare had the largest team and they have some of the leading swimmers in the country.
The province has over the years remained on top when it comes to national championships.
One of the coaches for Harare, Timothy Phiri, said the return of the championships that were suspended last year due to Covid-19 was good for the sport.
“The first and foremost thing is to thank the organisers for making it possible for us to come back with the athletes to swim after a while. We are doing well, and thanks to Bulawayo, Matabeleland and Mutare who are here as well to support this event, which is good.
“The numbers yes, but we have got good quality as well.
“As a coach I am happy to see what we have been doing behind the doors, to showcase outside here for people to see what we are doing with these kids, preparing them for different tours, different competitions out there,” said Phiri.
While Harare were the overall winners, Bulawayo were not to be left out. They again this year won the aggregate shield.
The aggregate winners are determined by dividing the total number of points for each province by the number of swimmers each province would have fielded.
This allows for the organisers to assess the depth of each province in terms of their swimmers and Bulawayo have stood their own despite having limited numbers than Harare.
Bulawayo boys captain, Dylan Lee, said they are proud of the effort they made as a team as they gave their best in the pool.
“We are very proud of the team. Of course, Harare has the numbers but it’s the quality over quantity. Everyone was really putting their most and the effort was exceptional as well,” said Lee. For the individual overall winners with the most points, the boys’ section went to Bulawayo’s Patrick Duff and his teammate Jayden De Swardt was the runner-up.
In the girls’ section, Harare’s Alexis Johnsen was the overall winner and Vhenekai Dhemba was the runner-up.
Johnsen attributed her success to hard work and singled out the 50m butterfly as her best after posting a personal best time of 34.38 seconds. She was competing in the Girls 12 and Under age-group.
“It was really exciting, especially my 50m fly I got a PB that I have been trying to get for over a year.
“And going against other people, it’s really exciting and seeing other people from Bulawayo it’s really cool and just meeting new friends.
“It’s really big for me because I was really scared coming up to this gala but I trained hard for the past two weeks,” said 12-year-old Johnsen.
Online Reporter