dyton mupawaenda
Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S swimmers at the just-ended World Aquatics World Swimming Cup in Budapest, Hungary will be hoping to build on the experience gained at the meet as they continue preparing for the World Championships and Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers.
Zimbabwe Swimming had three swimmers, one female – Paige Van der Westhuizen and two males – Liam O’Hara and Benjamin Rorke taking part at the three-day competition that ended yesterday.
Van der Westhuizen competed in 50m, 100m and 200 freestyle while Rorke participated in 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly.
O’Hara took part in 50m freestyle, 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke, and 200m individual medley.
Van Der Westhuizen posted a personal best in 100m freestyle when completing the race in 59.20seconds. She also improved her times in the 50m freestyle and 200m compared to the entry times.
Her entry time for 50m freestyle was 27.58seconds and she swam 27.29 seconds while for 200m freestyle she improved from 2minutes 09.85seconds to 2minutes 09.17seconds.
Rorke managed to take off some time from his entry times as well in some of the events. In 50m backstroke he swam 28.38seconds beating his entry time of 28.65seconds. It was the same story in the 100m freestyle where he finished the race in 54.04seconds. His entry time was 54.95seconds.
O’Hara managed to improve his time in the 50m freestyle when completing the race in 25.58seconds. His entry time was 26.17seconds.
Speaking from Hungary, team leader Barney O’Hara said the swimmers gave their best.
“These are some of our top swimmers. Their results were good for a world class event especially bearing in mind that this event was not at a prime time for them.
“They are in the middle of an extremely hard training program aimed more towards qualifying events for World Championships in Doha, early February 2024 and of course the Paris Olympics.
“The squad was small due to financial constraints as it was a self-funded tour with no assistance. They all performed well and gave of their best and were good ambassadors of our country,” sad O’Hara.
O’Hara is confident the exposure and experience gained at the World Cup will go a long way in motivating the swimmers as they continue with their preparations for the World Championships and Olympics Games qualifiers.
The World Championships due to take place in Doha, Qatar, is scheduled for early February next year.
“It will be big. Competing against the world’s top athletes can only have great benefits. These top World Aquatic events give our athletes huge experience and just being present watching two world records being broken in two days is a huge stimulant to our top athletes,” said O’Hara.
The World Cup is a series of three three-day competitions held in three different cities across the world in October. The series took off in Berlin, Germany before going to Athens, Greece and Budapest, which was the last of the three meets.
Online Reporter