Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) has congratulated Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry after she was named African Female Swimmer of the Millennium by Swimming World.
Swimming World recently named swimmers of the millennium for the first 20 years of this century (2000-2019) instead of the usual Swimmer of the Year for 2020.
It indicated that there was not enough data to legitimately honour individuals as World, American, European, Pacific Rim and African Swimmers of the Year, due to disruption of events and normal life by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coventry was named African Female Swimmer of the Millennium, while South African Chad Le Clos bagged the men’s award.
“The board, management and staff of the Sports and Recreation Commission convey our heartfelt congratulations to one of our very own, Hounarable Minister of Youth Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry on being named the African Female Swimmer for the Millenium by Swimming World.
“This recognition by Swimming World comes at a time when the minister was also inducted into the African Union Sports Region 5, Sports Hall of Fame early in December 2020 by the African Union Sports Council Region 5,” the SRC statement reads.
Coventry was among seven personalities bestowed with the honour by the African Union Sport Council Region 5 Council of Ministers during their virtual extraordinary meeting held in December.
She is Africa’s most successful Olympian, having won Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008 in the 200m backstroke, and silver medals in the 100m backstroke in the 2004 Games.
In the 2008 Games, she won silver in the 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley and 100m backstroke.
She took bronze in the 200m individual medley at the 2004 Games.
Online Reporter