Makaya, Cyprianos end year on high note

Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent

STINGRAYS swimmers, Tichatonga Makaya and Denilson Cyprianos continued with their great achievements this year breaking national records at the KwaZulu-Natal Premier Provincial Championships that ended in Durban last Sunday.

Cyprianos set new records for both the 100 and 200m backstroke in both the 17-year-old and 17 and over age group, while Makaya set new records in the 100m Butterfly (breaking Paul Mwipikeni’s set record in September) and the 50m backstroke.

The meet at Kings Park Pool saw Cyprianos eclipse his previous 100m backstroke record that stood at 59,72 seconds as he touched the pad in 57,60 seconds, to claim the record and cement his place in swimming history.

In the 200m backstroke event, the Christian Brothers College pupil came in second in a time of two minutes 05:62 obliterating the previous record that he set of two minutes 08,64 seconds in March.

The new record saw him achieve the target he had set in March of going below the 2:08.00 mark.

Makaya came in first in the 13-year-olds 50m backstroke section in a time of 31,49 seconds to clinch gold and make a new national record. The previous record was held by Sloan Marshall and stood at 32,61 seconds. In the 100m butterfly, Makaya again claimed the gold medal in a time of one minute 09:29 seconds.

Makaya was the toast of the Stingrays team that travelled to the KZN Championships as he came back with four gold medals (50m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke) and three silver medals (100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley) while Cyprianos had two silver medals but they both achieved personal best times in other events.

Other members of the team included Khaya Vimba who made a final for the 100 breaststroke, Joash McKonie who had a personal best time in the 100m butterfly and made a B final, Quintin Tayali who was in the B final of the 100m butterfly and Jasper Mpofu who achieved a personal best in the 100m butterfly.

The KZN championships ran from 17 to 22 December.

The performances put the swimmers in good stead to excel at the forthcoming National Swimming Championships that will be held at Bulawayo City Pool from 8 to 12 January.