Tanzania swimmers eye honours at Africa meet
Tanzania’s top female swimmer Natalia Ladha battles for top honours during a past championship. She is among elite swimmers making up a 60-member provisional squad for the 2018 Youth African Championship. PHOTO | FILE
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Tanzania Swimming Association has unveiled a 60-member provisional squad ahead of the 2018 Africa Zone Three Championship
Dar es Salaam. Local swimmers will be gunning for medals when the Africa Zone Three Championship roars into life in Khartoum, Sudan, says Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA).
TSA has unveiled a 60-member provisional squad ahead of the championship organised by African Swimming Confederation (Cana).
Tanzania’s highly-rated female swimmer Sonia Tumiotto and swimming sensation Collins Saliboko, who are based in the United Kingdom, are among swimmers making up the squad.
Unveiling the squad yesterday, the TSA secretary general, Inviolata Itatiro, said the swimmers ager to stage a good performance at the championship later this year.
Others are Smriti Gokarn, Natalie Sanford, Marid De Villard and Christopher Fitzpatrick, who are also based in the UK. Ukraine-based swimmer Christian Shirima is also on the list.
The other top swimmers in the squad are Delvin Barrick, Peter Itatiro, Aravind Raghavendran, Adil Bharmal, Yuki Omari, Dennis Mhini, Hilal Hilal, Natalia Ladha, Kayla Gouws, Chichi Zengeni and Emma Imhoff.
Also on the list Celina Itatiro, Anna Guild, Ellis Anderson, Niamh Baker, Maia Tumiotto, Matthew Guild, Mohameduwais Abdullatif, Charotte Sanford, Lara Gouws, Rania Karume, Maya Somaia, Joseph Sumari and Aaron Akwenda.
According to Inviolata, the swimmers will start off camp training later this month at the International School (IST) of Tanganyika.
“Most of the swimmers making up the provisional squad are in fine form and have what it takes to shine in international competitions,” she said.
She said that the swimmers earned calls to the national provisional squad following their impressive performances in various championships, which took place between January and April, this year.
Apart from Tanzania, other countries that will field swimmers in the event are Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and the hosts Sudan.
The Tanzanian swimmers will report at camp later this month or early next month, according to the TSA official.
They will be under the tutelage of two coaches, namely Alex Mwaipasi and Michael Livingstone.
The two coaches guided the national team to the top honour in last year’s event, which took place in the country.
