Sonia struggles to finish top in heat, set new time

Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian athletes are optimistic. Top female swimmer in the country, Sonia Tumioto emerged the top in Heat one in 100 metre freestyle after clocking 1.01.47 in the ongoing Youths Olympics Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

However, the Dar es Salaam Swimming Club (DSC) swimmer did not make it to the finals after missing 6.32 seconds in combined results which featured 45 swimmers. She managed to improve her time by 0.67 seconds..

Sonia who is studying at St Felix School in England managed to improve her personal best time and become the only African swimmers who won the top position in the heat. Sixteen swimmers qualified for the finals. Barbora Seemanova of Czech Republic, Nagisa Ikemoto of Japan and Neza Klancar of Slovenia ranked in the top three.

Speaking with The Citizen, Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) chairman, Imani Dominic said despite the fact that Sonia did not qualify for the finals, they are very proud of her performance. Dominick said Sonia passed many challenges ahead of the championships, but still fought hard to record the best time in the tough games.

He said that Sonia was attending to her mother who is sick and did not train intensively. “As you know, Sonia was among swimmers who were selected to represent the country in Commonwealth Games in Australia in April this year, but she could not make it due to family problems, she then won a chance to compete in Youth Games where she did her best. To finish in the top position of the first heat is a step in our game, she deserves our compliments,,” said Dominick.