Swimmers start chase for medals

Dar es Salaam. Celina Itatiro and Collins Saliboko will today embark on a journey that might see them join the elite class of athletes who have won international medals for Tanzania.

Itatiro and Saliboko will compete in the 50m butterfly style and 200m freestyle respectively at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games opening today in Bahamas.

The multi-sports event, which has attracted over 1,300 young athletes aged between 14 and 18 years from 70 nations and territories, will run from today to Sunday with Tanzanians competing in swimming and athletics. Tanzanians hopes for medals in athletics rest on the shoulders of Regina Deogratius and Damas Damiano, who will compete in the 800m and 3,000m races respectively.

“We are well prepared for this year’s games. We are ready to take on our opponents,” Itatiro said on phone from the Bahamas yesterday. Saliboko had similar views, adding: “There is no way we can fail to make our presence felt in the games.”

For his part, Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) secretary general, Filbert Bayi said the youngsters were in high spirits, raring to steal show at the Bahamas Games.

According to one of the Team Tanzania coaches, Mwinga Mwanjala, who is in Bahamas with the quartet, Itatito and Saliboko will swing back into action tomorrow. Saliboko will compete in the girls’ 100m freestyle and Itatiro will take part in the 50m backstroke style.

They will also compete in 100m butterfly style on Friday before taking part in the 200m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

Coordinated by the Bahamas Commonwealth Games Association and the country’s ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the multi-sport event will see 94 medals contested in athletics, aquatics (swimming), beach soccer and boxing.

The young athletes will also compete in cycling, judo, rugby sevens, tennis and beach volleyball.

It will be the first time judo, beach soccer and beach volleyball to be included at the Commonwealth Youth Games.

It will be the second edition of the Youth Games to be held on a small Island Developing State, following the hugely successful Samoa 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in September last year.

It will also be the first Commonwealth Games event to be held in the Caribbean for over 50 years, with Commonwealth athletes last participating in the 1966 games in Jamaica.