adminEllinah Mhlanga Sports Reporter
LOCAL swimmers will this year have a different experience for the national sprint gala that is usually held in Mutare as it will be held at three different venues across the country.
The swimming season got underway in earnest with Harare hosting the first gala last month and Bulawayo had theirs on Saturday as competition begin to spread to other provinces.
The rest of the provinces are expected to follow suit soon with the provincial events.
The national event is scheduled to take place this coming weekend in Mutare the traditional hosts, Harare and Bulawayo, taking part.
The move to have the national sprint gala at three different venues has been necessitated by the prevailing situation.
Zimbabwe Swimming chairperson, Tracey Doorman, confirmed competition is going to run simultaneously in Mutare, Gweru and Harare.
“We have the national sprint gala, which will be held simultaneously in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.
“Traditionally it’s in Mutare but when we planned we were not sure what Government travel restrictions would be due to Covid-19. And also we thought it might assist parents this year especially to not have to incur travel costs.
“It’s just for this year as we were unsure what travel restrictions would be in place.
“We are able to merge the results on the Hy-Tek programme we use and then the results will be circulated to all provinces. It is on Saturday with individual medleys on either Friday or Sunday depending on the venue,” said Doorman.
The gala, which is open to all swimmers, usually attracts at least 100 swimmers but Doorman highlighted that they may miss some of the senior swimmers who are writing their Ordinary Level and Advanced Level exams.
“Any registered swimmer can compete but most seniors may not as they will have started writing O-Level and A-Level exams.
““Perhaps with no travel a few more may (take part). Usually we have in the region of 100 but it really is unknown at this stage,” said Doorman.
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