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Sports Reporter
HARARE Otters continued with their dominance in the Mashonaland Junior Swimming Championships when they finished top of the table with a combined team score of 798.5 points to defend their title on Sunday at Les Brown pool.
The championships started on Saturday and ended on Sunday with young swimmers between the age of nine and 12 taking part in all the four strokes — freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke — and relay events from 33-yard, 66-yard and 132-yard.
Otters came in as the favourites having won the championships three times in a row and they made it four over the weekend when they topped both the boys and girls sections with 378.5 points and 420 points respectively.
The combined points saw them retaining the title for the fourth consecutive year as their swimmers proved too good for their opponents.
Nomvula Mjimba had a good day as she scooped four gold medals in the 12-year-olds 66-yard freestyle, 132-yard individual medley, 66-yard breaststroke and gold in the 12-and-Under 132-yard medley relay.
She then won a silver medal in the 66-yard event.
One of Harare Otters coaches, Masi Takaedza, was a happy man and paid tribute to the parents and coaches for their support.
“It’s the hard training and support we get from the parents, they bring in the kids every day for training and we also have some good coaches.
“We have some very good youngsters coming up.
“Now, we will prepare the swimmers for the nationals, those who will be selected to swim in Bulawayo will continue training and in two weeks time some of our juniors will swim at the senior nationals, so we still have a lot of work to do,” said Takaedza.
In second place were Spartans with 542 points followed by Sharks with 446.5 points while Pirates Zimbabwe settled for fourth position with 179 points.
Dorado had 79 points to finish fifth and Highlands were bottom of the table with 54 points.
In the individual rankings, Tatenda Makova of Spartans was ranked first in the 12-year age group with 42 points while Mjimba topped the girls section with 48 points.
Makova, who had four gold medals, was happy with his performance and attributed his success to hard work.
“It’s a good feeling when you win, it brings you joy. It’s very tough, there were so many people in my age group, so many people training hard.
“I think it’s just training and hard work that helped me win,” said Makova.
Huang Dylan of Sharks and Hannah Mitchell from Spartans were ranked the best in the 11-year age group after scoring 47 and 41 points respectively.
In the 10-year-olds category Harare Otters’ Nhekairo Benoni had 38 points while Donata Katai of Sharks had 46 points.
Jacob Mitchell of Spartans and Kiara Goodinson from Pirates Zimbabwe had the highest points in the nine-and-Under boys and girls age groups after they amassed 40 and 36 points.
Mashonaland Swimming Board chairperson, Niroshia Abdulla, said the competition has improved and they will be using the results to select the team to represent Mashonaland at the National Junior championships in Bulawayo early next month.
“It has improved, the standard has gone up.
“We have a few records broken but those are obviously subject to confirmation so I can’t actually confirm them at this stage.
“The level has increased and the number of swimmers has gone up.
“We will now sit down and select the team based on the performance because it is a requirement for anyone to represent Mashonaland in the junior nationals they have to take part in the Mashonaland Junior,” said Abdulla.
Abdulla said 30 of their swimmers have qualified for the Level Two championships and 20 will take part in the Level One competition in South Africa in March.
Online Reporter