admin
Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE concluded their participation at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Thursday with some encouraging performances from their swimmers.
The championships featuring top international athletes competing in swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving began on July 14 and will end tomorrow.
Zimbabwe were represented by Denilson Cyprianos, Liam Davis, Donata Katai and Paige Van Der Westhuizen in swimming.
Cyprianos and Davis set new national records in their respective events, also posting their new personal best times in the process. Van Der Westhuizen also posted new personal best in both her events.
Cyprianos set two national records in the men’s 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. His first national record was in the 100m backstroke, where he posted a personal best of 57.29seconds, setting a new national record in the process. The previous national record was 57.43seconds.
He also surpassed the previous record of 2minutes 03.95seconds in the 200m backstroke when he posted a time of 2minutes 02.12seconds.
Davis then set a new national record of 2minutes 18.45seconds in men 200m breaststroke. The previous record was 2minutes 18.74seconds.
Van Der Westhuizen posted a personal best in the women’s 200m freestyle of 2minutes 09.85seconds. Her entry time was 2minutes 10.70seconds. It was the same scenario in the 100m freestyle where she set another personal best of 1minute 00.12seconds.
Coach Lindsy Tudor-Cole, who travelled with the team was impressed with the outcome but said there is room for improvement.
“I think it was an extremely successful tour – three national records and personal best is a fantastic result from our athletes. I am proud of them.
“And then with regards to what we will take from overall performance is that the athletes definitely were prepared to do their best and compete at this championship and I think that’s a reflection of the personal best plus the three national records which is amazing.
“We definitely have room for improvement as we are learning from the world champions, the world record holders,” said Tudor-Cole. Zimbabwe are hoping some of their swimmers make the grade for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“Now it’s a little hard work in the next 10 months to qualify for the Olympics. So we are looking forward to it,” said Tudor Cole
Zimbabwe Swimming chairperson Zanele Nkomazana said three national records and five personal best times from seven events is a good sign.
“This is a sign that our elite swimmers continue to improve their times and definitely breaking records draws us closer to the much needed Paris 2024 times and beyond.
“The squad here has grown in confidence in competing at this level and they know the amount of work needed when they come back to compete at the next World Championships in Doha, in February 2024.
“We are targeting beyond Paris 2024 and we are building a strong base of junior elite athletes and sending them in numbers to regional and continental championships. We are also working on training camps and supporting them in every way we can,” said Nkomazana.
They now focus on the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games that got underway yesterday. The Games are running until August 8.
Zimbabwe Swimming are competing in the Games for the first time and will be represented by Cyprianos and Nomvula Mjimba.
“This is a meet we want to participate in going forward and this year we are really going to assess what the competition is like.”
Cyprianos is competing in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke while Mjimba is up for 50m and 100m freestyle, and 50m butterfly.
Online Reporter