Dar Swim Club: transformed swimming into opportunities

What you need to know:

  • The club has so far managed to send five swimmers to St Felix School in England through a special programme

Dar es Salaam. There is a slogan that says “action speaks louder than sound.” We can relate the slogan to the achievements made by famous swimming club, Dar es Salaam Swimming Club (DSC).

The club was established in August 24, 2007 and no one thought that one day it would attain the highest development in the country while turning the sport into a forum for opportunities.

The club has so far managed to send five of its club swimmers to St Felix School in England through a special programme.

Top female swimmer in the country, Sonia Tumiotto, was the first to get a chance of studying abroad. Others who have now joined Tumiotto are Smriti Gorkan, Chichi Zengeni and Marin de Villard.

The swimmers train and swim for St Felix, which is under famous trainer, Sue Purchase. The trainer made a visit to Tanzania and met with the swimmers’ parents before leaving for England.

The club has partnered with Dubai’s Hamilton Aquatics in a deal that has so far benefitted their coach, Salum Mapunda, who is currently in training but also works with the club.

Hamilton Aquatics coaches visited DSC and conducted a special training for swimmers and coaches. The top United Arab Emirates organisation conducted two training sessions with the club and was very impressed by the potential of swimmers.

DSC also managed to conduct a swimming clinic under the instruction of former top swimmer in the world, Penelope (“Penny”) Heyns. Penny is the only woman in the history of the Olympic Games to have won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the 1996 Atlanta games.

The swimmer clinched South Africa’s first post-apartheid Olympics gold medal, following South Africa’s re-admission to the Games in 1992. Along with Australian champion Leisel Jones, Heyns is regarded as one of the greatest breaststroke swimmers .

Establishment and achievements

Dar Swim Club, which is among the largest swimming clubs in Dar es Salaam, was founded in July 2004 by two coaches, Ferick Kalengela and Michael Livingstone. Other club coaches are Kanisi Mabena, Radhia Ngereza and Jacob Lazaro.

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work,” says the club’s secretary general, Inviolata Itatiro.

Inviolata said the club had gone through very challenging situations to achieve its current success.

She said they started with a few swimmers who were very young, saying it was difficult to take them to a competition in order to promote the club.

She explained that good training and leadership helped the club to grow faster and managed to win various competitions such as Taliss Invitation gala in 2016. The club also won the Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) junior gala last year.

Objectives

Apart from promoting swimming among Tanzanians, Inviolata said the objective of DSC was to train even foreign children, develop swimming and lifesaving skills in the community, enhance self-confidence and social interaction among swimmers.

Inviolata said the club was building a “dream team” which would eventually participate in the swimming Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games as well as World Championships.

She said their slogan is: “We care about swimming and bringing the youth together through sports.”