admin
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE country’s swimming administrative body — Zimbabwe Swimming — is embarking on an ambitious move to have at least one club in each district across the country as it aims at enhancing, both the lifesaving and competitive aspects of the sport.
This was revealed by Zimbabwe Swimming chairperson, Zanele Nkomazana in an interview on the sidelines of the 40th edition of the prestigious National Sprint Gala held at Mutare City Pool, fondly referred to as Main Bath last week on Friday and Saturday respectively.
Asked about the challenges the sport is facing in tapping talent from marginalised areas, Nkomazana said: “For swimming or aquatics in this country, time is a challenge in schools. Our athletes depend on club training, but by the time they get to the clubs, they will be tired. Our plea is that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should provide time to swimming just like other sporting genres.
“We are also mindful of the need for facilities. We need pools with electronic time keeping devices. The Mutare one does not have the electronic time keeping device. For our national competitions, we only have pools in Mutare, Harare and Bulawayo, hence the need for more around the country.
“More importantly, we are trying to ensure that every district has a swimming club. Our aim is to ensure that we have as many clubs as possible. The district clubs will combine with other districts in a particular province and compete among themselves until it gets to the national competitions.
“The idea really is that we should, not only focus on swimming as a competitive sport, but also lifesaving. This is the reason why we want every other water body to be used to train people swimming, especially children,” she said.
During the just-ended National Sprint Gala, competitors mainly aged nine years to over 15 years, minus those sitting for their Ordinary and Advanced level examinations converged in the eastern border city for the season opening contest.
More than 1 200 contestants kept a sizable crowd in attendance on the edge of their seats at Mutare City Pool.
One of the highly rated events on the Zimbabwe Swimming calendar, the two-day National Sprint Gala has been in existence for the past 40 years, and it has been hosted in the eastern border city 35 times.
Affiliated Crusaders Swimmers, Border Dolphins Zimbabwe, Crocs, Dashing Dolphins, Dorado Swim Club, Highlands, Midlands, Penguins Club, School of Swimming, Shabani Dolphins, Sharks, Spartans, Stingrays Swimming Academy, The Falcons Swimming Club, Unattached and Vikings make up the list of the 16 clubs that participated in their year’s edition of the annual event.
Participants competed in numerous categories that include the 15s and over where Ethan Chivaura of Stingray Club from Bulawayo came third, while Liam Chicksen Crusader Club, again based in Bulawayo, came second.
Harare-based Vikings Club’s Limbikani Kalipengule scooped pole position in that category.
Kalipengule said: “It was a good race. I got a personal best time of two minutes 13 seconds in the 200m freestyle. My previous personal best time was two minutes 16 seconds.”
In the 12 and over category 100m competition, Mbalenhle Jared of Crocs came first, while Nhanisi Moyo of Crusaders came second.
In the 15 and over contest, Crusaders’ Nsikelelo Sibanda ruled the roost, while Tarirai Madamombe of Harare outfit,Vikings came settled for second position.
Kalipengule came third.
Nkomazana added: “This competition comes as our season opener annually. We are happy that it went on well, and we are now looking forward to more national competitions as the season progresses. We applaud the zeal shown by the participants during the event and it is evidence of the abundant talent in the country that only need nurturing.”
Online Reporter