Zim swimmer takes to the pool in medal search

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN swimmer Peter Wetzlar will take to the pool in the Olympic Games’ 100m freestyle heat at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre today.

The 24-year-old United States-based swimmer will compete in Heat 4, hoping to make it among the 16 swimmers to qualify for the semi-finals.

Wetzlar together with teenage sensation, 17-year-old Donata Katai, who competed in the 100m backstroke on Sunday, earned their places in the Tokyo Olympics via two universality slots that were awarded to Zimbabwe Swimming by the International Swimming Federation (Fina).

Since graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Wetzlar has been working as a tax officer for a public accounting, consulting and technology firm in Kentucky’s second largest city of Lexington in the United States.

He will be hoping to overcome the unfortunate experience of Katai, who won her heat and set a new personal best time in the women’s 100m backstroke on Sunday but failed to make the semi-finals after being ranked 34th out of 41 swimmers in the overall heat standings.

She won her heat in a time of 1 minute 02.73 seconds.

Katai also made history, becoming the first black Zimbabwean swimmer to compete in the global multi-sport showpiece.

She displayed qualities of a future Olympic medal hopeful and with proper training she looks the more likely to add to Zimbabwe’s eight Games’ medals, seven of which were won by Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry in the pool in the Athens and Beijing events.

Prior to that, Zimbabwe only had one Olympic hardware to its name, the gold medal won by the women’s hockey team in the 1980 Games.

Rower Peter Purcell-Gilpin is out of contention for a medal after coming sixth in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Purcell-Gilpin emerged sixth in his race in 7 minutes 37.97 seconds, which was more than two seconds slower than the repêchage that he won and thrust him into the quarter-finals.

He won the repêchage in 7 minutes 35.16 seconds on Saturday after missing direct qualification to the quarter-finals on Friday when he emerged fourth in his heat. — @innocentskizoe