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HARARE Amateur Swimming held their short course competition over the weekend with most swimmers excited to be back into the pool.
The weekend’s competition, at Hellenic Academy, attracted swimmers from Highlands, Otters, Spartans, Pirates, Sharks, Dorados and Falcon.
The provincial competitions are being held under strict Covid-19 guidelines since the season got underway in September.
For most of the swimmers, it’s still work in progress as some started training late due to the lockdown measures.
Most clubs use schools for training and they are not yet opened to outsiders and clubs have had to find alternative facilities.
In some cases it meant limited training sessions.
Some of leading swimmers who competed in the meet include Ashley Makuwa, Kiara Goodinson, Benjamin Rorke, Matida Musere, Paige van der Westhuizen, and Timea Schultz.
Goodinson, from Pirates, said it’s been tough training for the season but is excited to be back in the pool.
“It feels really good to be back, I mean it did take a while to get back to training and that moment of swimming again but it really feels good to be back and I am glad I am back in the water now.
“It kind of felt a bit weird compared to what we are normally used to, I mean, with the restrictions with lanes and all of that and also not being able to train in our normal pool.
“But, swimming is back, so we are quite excited for that,” said Goodinson.
She is hoping to make the South African Championships and, among the events she competed in, were the girls’ 15-to-16 50m butterfly and breaststroke, coming first in both events in 32.39s and 38.16s.
Highlands’ Rorke, who is also targeting the South Africa tour, was pleased they can now measure their progress in a competitive set-up.
“I think today’s events have been successful.
“Some people have been getting good times.
“I have only entered two competitions, the first one and this one so far, later in the future I will enter more,” said Rorke.
Rorke came first in the men 15-to-16 100m freestyle in 55.77s, one of the event he is hoping to make the time for, the South Africa competition next year and still need to push for a better time.
He had some positives taking off some time in the 200m individual medley after touching the wall in 2 minutes 24.24s as well as in the 50m butterfly.
Ten-year-old Alexis Johnsen, from Spartans, who has had some promising performances in the previous season, also took part.
And she managed to take off some time in the girls 10-and-over 25m butterfly posting 17.10s compared to her previous time of 17.61s.
However, she still needs to push for a better time in the 50m butterfly where she managed 37.35s compared to 35.04s from her previous results.
“Today was not one of my best days because this week training was a bit hard and this was basically like a training gala, so I want to take it easy before the Mash Champs,” Johnsen said.
Online Reporter