Swimmers keen on medals

Tanzania will field two teams at the Africa Swimming Federation (Cana) Zone Three Championships opening on Thursday at the Heaven of Peace Academy pool.

Organised by Cana in collaboration with Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA), the three-day championships will feature the crème of swimmers from six countries.

The TSA secretary general, Ramadhan Namkoveka, yesterday named teams that will represent the country in the much anticipated event as Tanzanite and Platinum.

“Tanzania will parade two teams in this year’s Cana Championships by virtue of being the hosts. Tanzanite and Platinum will comprise 30 and 21 players respectively,” he said.

The two teams are now camping in the city under the tutelage of coaches Alexander Mwaipasi and Michael Livingstone ahead of the annual championship.

According to Namkoveka, 15 of the 30 swimmers making up Tanzanite are men and the rest are women, while Platinum will have nine females and 12 men. He named female swimmers in the Tanzanite team as Rania Karume from Zanzibar’s Wahoo Club, Chichi Zengeni, Maia Tumiotto, Smriti Gokarn, Sonia Tumiotto and Anjani Taylor all are from Dar es Salaam Swim Club (DSC).

Also on the list are Natalie Sanford, Anna Guild, Emma Imhoff, Sanne Kleinveld, Angelica Spence, Tara Behnsen, Tami Triller, Kayla Gouws and Amani Doggart.

Male swimmers in the squad are Judah Miller, Elia Imhoff, Delvin Barick, Caleb O’Sullivan, Khaleed Ladha and Matthew Guild.

Others are Chris Fitzpatrick, Marin Villard, Adil Bharmal, Hilal Hilal, Harry McIntosh, Dhashrrad Magesvaran, Joseph Sumari, Collins Saliboko and Dennis Mhini.

This will be the first time for Tanzania to host the championship, which is one of the major swimming competitions in Africa.

Namkoveka named countries that have so far confirmed their participation in the event as South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti and hosts Tanzania.

According to him, countries that have shown interest in taking part in the championship but have yet to confirm are Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Rwanda and South Sudan.

He said countries from Zone 4, namely Angola, Botswana, Comoro, Madagascar, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, have been invited to take part in the event. He appealed to companies and individuals for financial support, saying TSA needs at least Sh100 million to successfully host the championship.

“We have approached a number of firms for sponsorship but not of them has so far responded positively,” he said. ‘Over 200 swimmers from various countries across the continent are expected to battle it out for top honours during the championship. We are still striving to raise the money for the event,” he said.