Kirsty heads for London Games

The 2012 London Olympic Games are set to explode into life this coming Friday and Zimbabwe’s biggest medal hopeful at these Games, Coventry, was expected to team-up with the rest of her teammates in Team Zimbabwe for the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza last night.
Imelda Shoko, Team Zimbabwe’s Press attache, said yesterday from London that Coventry, a two-time women’s 200m backstroke Olympic champion, was expected to fly into the British capital last night from France.
“Kirsty has been training in France, preparing for the London Games and we are expecting her to join us here at the Games Village tonight (last night) as we prepare for Friday night’s opening ceremony of the Games,” Shoko said.
At Friday night’s opening ceremony of the London Games, Coventry will be the flagbearer of Team Zimbabwe for the second consecutive time after having performed the same role at the last Olympics in Beijing, China, four years ago.
And after leading Team Zimbabwe out during Friday night’s official opening ceremony, Coventry will then turn her focus on retaining her women’s 200m backstroke Olympic title at the same London Games.
She will first take to the pool in the morning of July 29 when she competes in the heats of the women’s 100m backstroke event whose semi-finals will held in the night of the same day.
And if Coventry manages to make it into the final of the women’s 100m backstroke final scheduled for the night of July 30, she will first compete in the heats of the 200m individual medley in the morning of the same day.
The semi-finals of the women’s 200IM will also be held on July 30 after the women’s 100m backstroke final.
The women’s 200IM final has been scheduled for the night of July 31, two days before Coventry starts her defence of the women’s 200m backstroke title by competing in the event’s qualifying heats.
The semi-finals of the women’s 200m backstroke event will be held on the same day (August 2) and the final will be swum the following night.
The women’s 200m backstroke will be Coventry’s last competition at this year’s London Olympic Games as she only entered for three events — 100 and 200m backstroke, and 200IM — at these Games.
In London, the talented Zimbabwean swimmer will be making her fourth straight appearance in the Olympics after having first taken part in the biggest global sporting showpiece in 2000 in Sydney, Australia.
She the went on to represent Zimbabwe at the next two Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004 and Beijing, China, in 2008 where she fished out a total of seven medals for her country — two golds, four silvers and one bronze.
This saw her becoming the most decorated Zimbabwean athlete in the history of the modern Olympic Games.
Coventry will not be short of support at this year’s Olympic Games as hundreds of Zimbabweans, who are resident in London and the surrounding cities and towns of the British capital, are expected to throng the Olympic Park Aquatics Centre to watch her in action.
In fact, some of these Zimbabweans are reported to have pledged their “full support” of Coventry during a welcome party for Team Zimbabwe at Rollers BBQ Sport in the Chingford area of London on Sunday.
Team Zimbabwe’s Press attache, Shoko, said yesterday that they were welcomed by hundreds of Zimbabweans, living in the Diaspora, at this welcome party on Sunday.
“There was a welcome function that was arranged for us by our fellow Zimbabweans who are living here in England and there were a number of activities that were lined-up for this all-day event and it included a soccer match between ‘the celebrities’ and ‘soccer legends’.
“The Zimbabwe Ambassador to the UK, Gabriel Machinga and his wife, were also present and we all really enjoyed ourselves,” Shoko said. A welcome ceremony for Team Zimbabwe was also held on Sunday morning at the Games Village in London.