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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
SWIMMING clubs from different provinces are this weekend set to meet in Mutare for the National Sprint Gala.
The competition is slated for Friday and Saturday at Mutare City Pool. It is the first national meet for this season.
The season got underway in earnest with provinces such as Bulawayo, Harare and Matabeleland South having already held some events at provincial level.
The gala is open to swimmers from as young as nine-year-olds up to the seniors and most of the participants will be competing for times before the go for the provincial championships in their respective provinces.
Zimbabwe Swimming chairperson Zanele Nkomazana said they have introduced some 200m events for the purpose of some of their swimmers who would want to compete in South Africa.
“Clubs from all provinces in the country meet in Mutare every year this time, October, during our school mid-term break.
“So basically this competition we use it to try and get times before swimmers compete at their provincial championships. These happen at the end of the year. So this is that gala where they (swimmers) see where they are after swimming their provincial league galas. “So they then go and swim this as a national sprint gala and thereafter they swim their provincial championships. So we expect everyone from all the provinces; registered right now is 241 swimmers. We restrict it to sprint events, 50m and 100m of every stroke.
“So we have introduced 200m on Friday because we benchmark ourselves using our neighbour South Africa. So it is a requirement for our swimmers to swim 200m events – 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley before they go and compete in South Africa.
“It is good because it gives our swimmers a chance to practice all their strokes if they have to swim in individual events, especially to younger age before they start specialising,” said Nkomazana.
Other forthcoming national events include the junior and senior national championships scheduled for January 2024 and February 2024 respectively.
The juniors’ competition will be held in Bulawayo and the seniors will meet in Harare.
Highlands are the defending champions and will be out to retain the title.
They will be up against other top clubs such as Spartans and Sharks from Harare as well as Stingrays Swimming Academy from Bulawayo. Upcoming clubs such as Vikings are also set to take part.
“So this year it is going to be interesting, traditionally Highlands have dominated the sprint gala. They are the defending champions.
“So what Highlands have done is they were helping a club to grow Vikings, and Vikings is now a stand-alone club and they have grown in numbers…So Highlands have been doing well in helping.
Coaches and swimmers develop and then start their own clubs in their respective districts. So we hope to see what happens, obviously Spartans are strong this year.
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