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Ellina Mhlanga-Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER an interesting show by Donata Katai on Sunday when she made her debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, attention shifts to another swimmer Peter Wetzlar, who will be out in the pool today for the men’s 100m freestyle at Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
The top 16 swimmers from the nine heats lined up for today proceed to the semi-finals.
Wetzlar (24) will be competing in Heat Four and is up against Matthew Abeysinghe of Sri Lanka, Samy Boutouil of Morocco, Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Armenia’s Artur Barsegyyan, Ian Yentou Ho from Hong Kong, Nikolas Antoniou of Cyprus and Khurshidjon Tursunov from Uzbekistan.
The Zimbabwean swimmer’s personal best and entry time is 50.50 seconds and will be in lane eight.
Armenia’s Barsegyyan is the best ranked in this Heat with an entry time of 49.96 seconds.
Taking into account the entry times of the other swimmers, Wetzlar will have to up his game, if he is to advance to the next stage.
Coach Lindsy Tudor-Cole, who is in charge of the swimmers at the Tokyo Games, said she is looking forward to today’s race.
“For myself it’s been incredible obviously mixing with the best coaches in the world and making connections there. So definitely a lot to learn, a lot to see and great connections being made.
“And obviously super excited for Peter’s swim which is tomorrow (today) in the men’s 100m freestyle,” said Tudor-Cole.
Wetzlar has represented Zimbabwe in a number of continental and international competitions.
In 2019, Wetzlar participated in the FINA World Championships in Korea. He was part of Team Zimbabwe for the African Games in the same year.
He has been to the FINA World Short Course Championships.
In 2015, he was at the FINA Junior World Championships in Singapore and attended the Africa Games, then known as the All-Africa Games.
Wetzlar represented the country at the Africa Junior Swimming Championships in 2011, and in 2013 he returned to the same competition and won a bronze medal in 50m freestyle.
He has been to the African Youth Games and in 2014 he won a bronze medal in 50m freestyle at the African Union Sports Council Region Five Games held in Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe has only two swimmers at the Tokyo Games.
Speaking on Katai’s race, Tudor-Cole was full of praise for the young swimmer who set a new personal best time, when coming first in Heat One on Sunday with a time of 1 minute 02.73 seconds.
However, the 17-year-old missed the semi-finals.
“The race was fantastic. She did everything right… Of course, the field is extremely powerful and you know (with) the older swimmers from the bigger nations. But still she moved up the ranks, she did a personal best, so super happy with that.
“And as it is with the Olympic Games, it obviously comes with a huge amount of pressure. The magnitude of the Games is huge, so she handled that perfectly for her age. She was calm, she didn’t let the nerves get to her and fall apart. She handled everything absolutely perfectly.
“And I already think this was a great achievement for her, on her first appearance at the Olympics Games and considering her age. So definitely, salute her.
“I think it will also be an inspiration for younger swimmers at home, to be able to see somebody that they compete with in their local galas, having achieved an Olympics and performing as well as she did,” Tudor-Cole said.
Other Zimbabwean athletes that are still to compete are golfer Scott Vincent and sprinter Ngoni Makusha.
The men’s golf event tees off on Thursday while Makusha is expected on the track for the men’s 100m event on Saturday.
Online Reporter