Taliss-IST takesjunior swimming event by storm

What you need to know:

  • The Taliss-IST Swimming Club have all the reason to smile after managing to win three titles in the Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) event calendar in this year.

Dar es Salaam. The Taliss-IST Swimming Club have all the reason to smile after managing to win three titles in the Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) event calendar in this year.

After winning the Invitational event, Taliss-IST have proved their worth after emerging the winners of the Open Championships title and later winning the Masters swimming championships which involved 25-year-old swimmers and above. They have also topped the just ended Junior National championships.

However, the three top honors in the country have not come just on a silver platter, but rather through the hard-work of the club’s management, coaches, swimmers and parents.

Club Manager Hadija Shebe said they struggled to make the club win the three titles in the country and restore their status.

“What we do is to build the team’s spirit and instill a fighting spirit to our swimmers. You know, Tanzania has many strong swimming clubs that also compete for top honors.

“We analyzed our past results and found a solution, it is good that we are now celebrating the fruits of working hard,” said Shebe.

She said it was not easy to win top honours due to the fact that each club also targeted the silverware. “There is no single club that wants to finish second or at the bottom, each targets the best results, we did the same despite the uphill task we faced,” said Hadija.

JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Taliss-IST collected a total of 2,231 points in both men’s and women’s categories in the just-ended Junior Championships held at the International School of Tanganyika (IST) Upanga swimming pool. 

The club was followed by Bluefins that collected 1,496 points and Dar es Salaam Swimming Club in the third slot with 1,131 points.

Hadija said that their club managed to finish at the top in both men and women categories. Taliss scored 1,231.50 points in men category and was followed by Bluefins with 810.50 points and Dar es Salaam Swimming Club (DSC) in the third with 512 points.

The Upanga-based club also topped in women’s category after collecting 1,595 points and followed by Bluefins 686 points and Dar Swim Club in the third with 619 points.

“This is history in the swimming Tanzania as well as in our club, we need to stretch our muscle in order to maintain the status. Next year we may be in trouble because each club will target to stop us,” said Hadija.

She said a number of swimmers showed to have improved their performances in the event, targeting to win titles while other breaking national records.

NATIONAL RECORD BREAKERS:

Famous club swimmer Natalia Ladha led the team to break 10 national records. Natalia was followed by Aravind Raghavendran who broke nine records and Sydney Harderman also broke nine records.

Other swimmers who broke records for the club are Sophia Latiff who broke seven, Matli van Schalkyk (4), Aaron Hu (7), Olivia Carmichael (2), Amylia Chali (1), Amelie Dunford (1), Hugo Dunford (4), Oskar Eriksson (1), and Sam Harderman who broke one national record.

Other swimmers who contributed high points to the team were Olivia Dogagart with 112 points and Nawal Shebe 110 points. Sarah Imran Dewji improved her personal best time in the event.