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Ellina Mhlanga in Paris, France
SWIMMING coach Masi Takaedza has underscored the need for the country to up its game if local athletes are to match the international standards at such big sporting events as the Olympic Games.
Speaking at the end of Zimbabwe’s swimmers’ campaign here, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Wednesday, Takaedza stressed the need to have an enabling environment to complement the athletes’ efforts, including facilities.
Paige van der Westhuizen and Denilson Cyprianos represented the country in the women’s 100m freestyle and men’s 200m backstroke respectively. However, they found the going tough, as both missed the semi-finals. The fastest 16 proceeded to the semis.
“Firstly, I just want to congratulate the swimmers on their determination to finish off the job. An Olympic cycle is four years and it was hard, and they had to put in a lot of effort and time. I would also like to thank everyone involved in helping the swimmers over the years.
Despite the many challenges and obstacles, they still did well, and we got a new national record. Their attitude really shows they can qualify for 2028 if they continue to take on the challenges and grow as swimmers. The swimmers did great in this meet. Paige’s time does not do justice to the way she trained leading to this competition. As for Deni it’s a new personal best and I can’t ask for more.”
Van der Westhuizen was placed 25 overall with a time of 58,19 seconds in the women’s 100m freestyle on Tuesday. The time was outside her personal best of 57,34 seconds. On Wednesday, Cyprianos swam a personal best of 2 minutes 01,91 seconds in the men’s 200m backstroke, also setting a new national record. However, it also shows the gap between the swimmers and their counterparts from leading countries.
Cyprianos’ previous personal best going into the Games was 2 minutes 01,96 seconds. “I am really impressed by the swimmers’ growth over the last few years and I hope they can see it too. As I mentioned before this will help evaluate the areas that we need to help the swimmers with, be it exposure, and all the necessary tools that they might require for them to succeed in future.
It’s always positive when an athlete accomplishes set goals. The goal coming into this competition was to get new PB. Its good as this set a really great example for those involved in swimming. We certainly need to up our game and invest in facilities, and I repeat facilities. Long term planning is also needed,” said Takaedza.
After Tuesday’s event, Van der Westhuizen, took some time to share some insights on the work she put in towards participating at the Olympics.“I think preparing for these Olympics is the hardest thing I have ever done. Obviously swimming was announced last. So, we had the longest qualification period.
And I mean for the last year, back-to-back, two, three times a month I have been swimming meets all over the world trying to get these qualifying times. And in-between, training five, six hours every single day, 40, 50km a week just to swim a 100m, it’s tough. But I knew it’s what I wanted to do and I knew that in order to get here I was going to have to do as much racing as I possibly could.
So that’s what I did, I just raced as much as I could and thankfully it all worked out,” said Van der Westhuizen. Her next stop is the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m), in Hungary in December, and is already looking at building towards Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
“It is short course swimming so, it’s a little bit different. But I am quite excited for that, it’s the next one coming up. And then I am just going to keep building for the next few World Championships. But I think my goal for 2028 is to go on that A qualifying time. So pretty much everything I am doing from now until then, the next four years is building towards that,” said Westhuizen.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu