Will Sonia, Hilal represent TZ in Olympic Games?

Dar es Salaam. Recently two top swimmers in the country, Sonia Marco Tumiotto and Hilal Hilal performed wonders in the two international swimming championships.

As Sonia managed to win three medals in the Dubai International Aquatics Championship, Hilal Hilal won one medal in Cana Zone 4 championship held in Mauritius to make the country proud.

Sonia won one gold medal in 50 meters backstroke after clocking 32.77 and later won bronze medal in 200 meters in freestyle after clocking 2.15.59.She also won another bronze medal in 400 meters freestyle for the swimmers aged 14 and 15 years old after clocking 4.49.40.

Hilal won bronze medal in 50- meters butterfly after clocking 26.70 seconds. Apart from the recent results, the two swimmers proved to be the best even in the national championship held in March this year at Heaven of Peace Academy (Hopac).

According to the national championship swimming results released by Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA), Hilal has improved his personal best time to beat other prominent swimmers in the country, Ammar Ghadiyali while Sonia has scored high in the list after improving her personal best time to beat Magdalena Moshi, who is now based in Australia and Mariam Foum who is in Egypt.

The two swimmers, Magdalena and Mariam did not show up in the national championship due to unknown reasons. Sonia who is product of famous Tanzania swimming club, Dar Swim Club (DSC) broke 10 national records to take the lead in the country. She managed to break 100 meter’s freestyle national record after recording 1.02.47 to beat a record put by Josephine Oosterhuis in 2015 of 1.06.33.

The 14-year star swimmer is now 1.30secs ahead of Magdalena who scored 29.62secs in the World Championship held in Kazan last year. She is also 0.84secs ahead of Mariam Foum who scored 29.19 in the Commonwealth Games held in Scotland in 50m freestyle.

Sonia also broke 200 meters Individual Medley (IM) national record with 2.36.38 to outshine 2015’s Oosterhuis of 2.50.07. She then broke 100 meters backstroke national records drawn by Ito Sakura in 2013, after clocking 1.13.88. Sakura recorded 1.21.48.

Apart from that, Sonia managed to break her 2013 national record (2.31.06) in 200 meters freestyle after clocking 2.15.32 before breaking 400m freestyle record after clocking 4.55.30 respectively. The record was under Catherine Mason who won in 2013 with 5.21.05.

Other records she broke are 100 meters butterfly after recording 1.17.52 to beat Sakura’s 1.27.31, 100 meters Individual Medley (IM) with 1.13.04 to beat Ousterhuis (1.17.90), 200 meters backstroke after clocking 2.45.83 to beat Angelica Spence who recorded 3.07.44, 50 meters freestyle with 28.32 to overwrite Oosterhuis’s record which she put in 2015 of 29.73.

Hilal who swims for17 –year old swimmers has improved his swimming record since he joined Dubai camp. He currently holds national championship record in 100 meters freestyle with 54.16secs to overwrite his former record set in February last year.He also set new record in 50 meters butterfly with 26.06 to remove his old record of 26.77 before breaking another top record in 400 meters free style of 4.39.52 to beat his former record set in 2013 of 4.51.47 and later fix another national record of 1.00.66secs in 100 meters butterfly to remove in the chart Bloor Stuart’s record set in 2014 of 1.00.89.

Hilal continued to shine in the country after putting another convincing record in 50m breaststroke of 31.60secs to outshine Iyas Shivji record set last year with 33.11secs before breaking his own record of 29.68secs in 50m backstroke and draw new record of 29.46secs and later broke another 100m breaststroke record set by Stuart in 2014 of 1.12.44 to set the new one of 1.10.76.

The experienced swimmer also broke his national record of 50m freestyle of 24.74secs to put the new one of 23.21secs respectively. Apart from the recent results in Dubai and Mauritius which also put him at the top, Hilal is also the best in male as per his results in both Kazan and this year’s national championships. Hilal scored 24.86secs in 50m and 1.03.87secs in 100m in freestyle in Kazan. He also scored 23.21secs in freestyle in 2016 national championship in 50m and 54.16 in 100m in the same category in the national championship respectively.

He also scored 26.06secs in 50m butterfly and 1.00.66secs in 100m butterfly compared to Ammar who scored 58.22secs in 100m freestyle and 28.81secs in 50m butterfly in Kazan. Hilal is also 4.06secs above Ammar in 100m freestyle and 3.95secs in 50m freestyle. The best results of the two swimmers give them a big chance to represent the country in Rio despite the fact that there are criteria set by Fina in the qualification under universality places for swimmers who featured in Fina’s 16th World Championship. Swimming stakeholders have criticised the criteria as it gives chances for athlete who may be idle after competing in Kazan which is about one year ago. The stakeholders said that Sonia who did not compete in Kazan last year, is currently at the top in female swimmers, but the criteria put her out in Olympic Games.

Already swimming stakeholders have questioned world swimming governing body (Fina) about the move and Fina has responded by writing to Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) for further clarification. TOC Secretary General, Filbert Bayi has requested Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) to submit the names for the swimmers who will be in universality places.

“I have requested the body to send the names of the swimmers, so I do not know if what the stakeholders have been requested will be followed or not, I will be in office this week as I am now in Karatu, let’s wait from TSA as the deadline for submission of the names is under the corner,” said Bayi.