Taliss feel proud of junior swimmer performance

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Life Saving Society (Taliss) leaders have been satisfied with the performance of young swimmers during the Isamilo invitational Swimming gala organised by Isamilo International School of Mwanza.

The event featured more than 150 swimmers, who competed in all four swimming styles supervised by Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA). The swimmers competed in freestyle, backstrokes, breaststrokes, and Individual Medley (IM). The event also saw the swimmers compete in relays.

The club scooped 2,139.5 points to finish in the third position out of 11 clubs. Mwanza swimming club finished first and Bluefins finished second. Taliss collected 1,062.5 points in the women category and 1,043 points in the men category.

Taliss General Manager, Jone Gouws said the team’s success in the game is the results of the commitment shown by the club management, swimmers, parents and the coaches.

Gouws said swimmers had shown their fighting spirits to make the club emerge at the top in the game despite the fact that they fielded only 21 swimmers. She said what happened in Isamilo swimming gala was reflection of their efforts in the development of the game.

“We have a good programme in our swimming training. We train daily with different sessions. We are now fee very proud of our swimmers. I cannot mention each swimmer for the club’s success. This is because all swimmers contributed to the club success,” said Gouws. She said that in the U-8 boys’ category Taliss swimmers Aaron Hu, Franco du Plessis and Kairaan Chunara dominated the podium in all the events. The swimmers took home all the three overall age group trophies with Aaron Hu first overall, Franco du Plessis (2nd overall) and Khairaan Chunara third overall.

In girls aged between nine and 10 years, Lara Gouws clinched the first position in the events and took home the overall winning age group trophy. In the girl’s 11 to 12 age group, Natalia Ladha had as usual a superb performance. She won the gold medals in 100m (freestyle) as well as in 50m and 100m’s backstroke.

She also won silver medal in 200m backstroke in the open age category and bronze medal in the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle in open age category as she competed against 15 year olds. In the boys 11 to 12 years age group, Aravind Raghavendran dominated and took home the overall age group winning a trophy. He got a gold medals in 100m Freestyle, 50m backstrokes (new record), 50m butterflies, 100m backstroke (new record set), 100 Individual Medley and 100 butterfly. He also got silver medals in 50m breaststroke and 100 breaststroke as well as 50m freestyle. In the girls 13 to 14 age group, Kayla Gouws dominated the first position by winning all her events and setting new records in 100m backstrokes and 100m butterflies. She also won the 400m in the Individual Medley (IM) and 200m backstroke (new record) in the open age group events.

Kalya also won silver medal in the 200m and 400m freestyle in the open age group before taking home the overall age group trophy.